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VERMONT BROADSIDES 
Compiled 

by 



JOHN COTTON DANA 



Published 

by 
The Elm Tree Press 
Woodstock, Yt. 

1912 



Fig 

, JJl(o 



// 



Vermont Broadsides 

These are poems, extracts from speeches and 
books. They all relate to Vermont. Many of them. 
as the list below shows, are of historic interest. 
Some of them are included simply because they are 
good things written by Vermonters. 

Printed on heavy white paper ; range in size from 
81-2x111-2 to 81-2x171-2. Very few sets of the 
whole 56 remain. They are offered to collectors and 
libraries, full sets, post free for $2.00. Single copies 
are 5 cents post free ; 10 for 40 cents ; 25 for 80 cents. 

1. Independent Farmer. Fessendem 

2. Love and Liberty. Tyler 

3. Green Mountain Boys. Bryant 

4. Vermont. Brown 

5. Ode to Independence Day. Tyler 

6 Vermont Winter-Song. Cutts 

7 A Picture. Eastman 

8 Comic Miseries. Saxe 

9 Come All Ye Laboring Hands. Rowley 

10 First Vermonters. Williams 

11 Green Mountain Home. Sprague 

12 My Mountain Land. Lindsley 

13 Ethan Allen. Goodell 

14 Wake Up Vermont 

15 Vermont Broadsides 

16 & 17 Of the Unique and Inspiring History of Vermont 

18 Ira Allen 

19&21 Indians of Vermont. Barber 

22 Farmers' Boys. Warner 

23 & 24 Ira Allen Thompson 

25 Sword and Plough. Gage 

26 Grave of Ira Allen. Huntoon 

27 What My Uncle Jerry Says. Eastman 

28 Famous Taverns of Vermont. Chalmers 

29 Song of Autumn. Eastman 

30 Song of Vermonters before the Battle of Plattsburg. 

Eastman 

31 Know Your Vermont ... and Wish Her Well. 
32 — 35 Vermont Statistics 

36 What My Uncle Jerry Says 

37 Vermont Statistics— Growth of State's Grand List 

38 New Vermont 

39 Ethan Allen. DePuy 

40 The American. Eastman 

41 Our First Republic 

42 Romance of Vermont's Early History. Allbee 

43 Vermont's Industrial Importance. Allbee 

44 Of the Character of Vermonters. Allen 

45 Pictures of Women. Smith 

46 Cock of the Saratoga. Brown 

47 Foundation of our Liberties 

48 Vermont's material progress. Evarts 

49 Bennington's early defiance of the British Crown 

50 Manufactures of Vermont 

51 Seeing Vermont in 1806. Dwight 

52 Two Great Assets of Vermont. Bryce 

53 Vermonter of the Future. Rossiter 

54 Future of Vermont 

55 Vermont and New Hampshire once near War. Wilbur 

56 Profit vs. Pleasure. Cobb 



The Independent Farmer 



Thomas Green Fessenden; born at Walpole, N. H., in 1771; graduated at 
Dartmouth in 1776; studied law at Rutland. He practiced law in Bellows 
Falls for nine years, then became editor of the Brattleboro Reporter, and 
afterwards started the New England Farmer. Died in Boston in 1827. 



It may very truly be said, 

That his is a noble vocation, 
Where industry leads him to spread 

Around him a little creation. 

He lives independent of all 

Except the Omnipotent donor ; 
He's always enough at his call, 

And more is a plague to its owner. 

He works with his hands it is true, 

But happiness dwells with employment ; 

And he who has nothing to do 

Has nothing by way of enjoyment. 

His labors are mere exercise, 

Which saves him from pain and physicians ; 
Then farmers you truly may prize 

Your own as the best of conditions. 

From competence shared with content, 

Since all true felicity springs, 
The life of a farmer is blent 

With more real bliss than a king's. 

Thomas Gkeen Fessenden. 



Love and Liberty 



Royal Tyler, wit, poet and Chief Justice; born in Boston in 1756; 
died in Brattleboro in 1826: a graduate of Harvard in 1776. In 1800 
and for several successive years he was elected by the Legislature 
of Vermont Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. 

Author of two volumes of Reports of Cases in the Supreme Court 
of Vermont, "The Contrast ", " An Author's Evenings ", etc. 



In briery dell or thicket brown, 

On mountain high, in lowly vale, 
Or where the thistle sheds its down, 

And sweet-fern scents the passing gale, 
There hop the birds from bush to tree ; 
Love fills their throats 
Love swells their notes, 
Their song is love and liberty. 

No parent birds their love direct ; 

Each seeks his fair in plumy throng, 
Caught by the luster of her neck, 

Or kindred softness of her song ; 
They sing and bill from tree to tree; 
Love fills their throats, 
Love swells their notes, 
Their song is love and liberty. 

Some airy songster's feathered shape, 

O ! could my love and I assume — . 
The ring-dove's glossy neck he take. 
And I the modest turtle's plume — 
O ! then we'd sing from bush to tree ; 
Love fill our throats, 
Love swell our notes, 
Our song be love and liberty, 

Royal Tyler. 



This is No. 2 of a series of Vermont reprints which The Age purposes to 
publish weekly during the year. These reprints will also appear as leaflets, 
printed on good white paper 8 1-2 x 11 1-2 for distribution by Vermont citi- 
zens and for use in reading and study in Vermont public schools. The leaf- 
ets are sold in lots of not less than 25, for 25 cents, mailed post free. 

The previous number is "The Independent Farmer," by Thomas Green 
Fessenden. 



The Green Mountain Boys 

A rustic army of nearly twenty thousand men quickly gathered 
about Boston to besiege Gage ; but its warlike spirit ran too high to 
be contented with passive and defensive measures. Benedict Arnold 
suggested that expeditions be sent against the fortresses at Ticon- 
deroga and Crown Point, which commanded the northern approach 
to the Hudson and were of great strategic importance The sugges- 
tion was at once adopted. Arnold was created colonel and set out to 
raise a regiment among the Berkshire Hills. When he arrived there, 
he found that Ethan Allen had already raised a force of Vermonters 
and started for Ticonderoga. 

Here halt we our march, and pitch our tent 

On the rugged forest-ground, 
And light our fire with the branches rent 

By winds from the beeches round. 
Wild storms have torn this ancient wood, 

But a wilder is at hand, 
With hail of iron and rain of blood, 

To sweep and waste the land. 

How the dark wood rings with our voices shrill, 

That startle the sleeping bird ! 
To-morrow eve must the voice be still, 

And the step must fall unheard. 
The Briton lies by the blue Champlain, 

In Ticonderoga' s towers, 
And ere the sun rise twice again, 

Must they and the lake be ours. 

Fill up the bowl from the brook that glides 

Where the fire-flies light and break ; 
A ruddier juice the Briton hides 

In his fortress by the lake. 
Build high the fire, till the panther leap. 

From his lofty perch in flight, 
And we'll strengthen our weary arms with sleep 

For the deeds of to-morrow night. 

William Cullen Bryant. 



This is No. 3 of a series of Vermont reprints which The Age purposes to 
publish weekly during the year. These reprints will also appear as leaflets, 
printed on good white paper 8 1-2 x 11 1-2 for distribution by Vermont citi- 
zens and for use in reading and study in Vermont public schools. The leaf- 
lets are sold in lots of not less than 25, for 25 cents, mailed post free. 

The previous numbers are: "The Independent Farmer," by Thomas 
Green Fessenden ; "Love and Liberty," by Royal Tyler. 



VERMONT 



Land of the Mountain and the rock, 

Of lofty hill and lowly glen, 
Live thunder-bolts thy mountains mock ; 
Well dost thou nurse by tempest's shock 

Thy race of iron men ! 



Far from the city 's crowded mart, 
From Mammon's shrine and Fashion's 
show, 
With beaming brow and loving heart, 
In cottage-homes they dwell apart, 
Free as the winds that blow. 



The Southland boasts of vines and flowers, 

Of cloudless skies and silver waves, 
Of spicy groves and orange bowers, 
Lovely as dreams in youth's sweet hours— 
But 'tis a land of slaves ! 



Of all the sister States that make 

This mighty Union, broad and strong, 
From Southern gulf to Northern lake, 
There's none that Autumn days awake 
To sweeter harvest-song. 



When Freedom from her home was driven 

In vine-clad vales of Switzerland, 
She sought the glorious Alps of heaven, 
And there, mid cliffs by lightning riven, 
Gathered her hero band. 



And when the cold winds round them blow, 

Fatner and son and aged sire — 
Defiant of the drifting snow, 
With hearts and hearths alike aglow- 
Laugh round the wint'ry fire. 



And still outrings her freedom-song, 
Amid the glaciers sparkling there, 
At Sabbath bell, as peasants throng 
Their mountain fastnesses along, 
Happy, and free as air. 



On Champlain's waves so clear and blue, 

That circled by the mountain lies, 
Where glided once the light canoe, 
With shining oar, the waters through, 
The mighty steamboat plies. 



And if, through Southern pow'r and pride, 

This broad, green land, in future time, 
Shall hear the slave-roll by the side 
Of Bunker's shaft, that marks where died 
Her sons in strife sublime ; — 



And now among those hills sublime, 
The car doth thunder swift along, 

Annihilating space and time, 

And linking theirs with stranger clime 
In union fair and strong. 



Lo, as the bugle echo thrills, 

New England's sons shall rally then, 
And build their homes by mountain rills, 
High up among our wild, green hills, 

And sing free songs again ! 



The hills were made for freedom ; they 

Break at a breath the tyrant's rod ; 
Chains clank in valleys ; there the prey 
Bleeds 'neath Oppression's heel alway — 
HILLS BOW TO NONE BUT GOD ! 



William G. Brown. 



This is No. 4 of a series of Vermont reprints which The Age purposes to 
publish weekly during the year. These reprints will also appear as leaflets, 
printed on good white paper 8 1-2 x 11 1-2 for distribution by Vermont citi- 
zens and for use in reading and study in Vermont public schools. The leaf- 
lets are sold in lots of not less than 25, for 25 cents, mailed post free. 

The previous numbers are: "The Independent Farmer," by Thomas 
Green Fessenden ; "Love and Liberty ," by Royal Tyler; "The Green Moun- 
tain Boys," by William Cullen Bryant. 



Ode to Independence Day 

Royal Tyler, wit, poet and Chief Justice; born in Boston in 1800 
died in Brattleboro in 1826: a graduate of Harvard in 1776. In 1800 
and for several successive years he was elected by the Legislature 
of Vermont Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. 

Author of two volumes of Reports of Cases in the Supreme Court 
of Vermont, " The Contrast ", " An Author's Evenings ", etc. 

Squeak the fife and beat the drum, 

Independence day has come ! ! 

Quickly rub the pewter platter, 

Heap the nutcakes fried in butter ; 

Set the cups, and beaker glass, 

The pumpkin, and the apple sauce ; 

Send the keg to shop for brandy — 

Maple sugar we have handy ; 

Sail, put on your russet skirt, 

Jotham, get your boughten shirt, 

To-day we dance the tiddle diddle,^— 

Here comes Sambo with his fiddle. 

Moll, come leave your witched tricks 

And let us have a reel of six. 

Father and mother shall make two, 

Sail, Moll and I stand all in a row ; 

Sambo, play and dance with quality — 

This is the day of blest equality. 

Father and mother are but men, 

And Sambo — is a citizen. 

Thus we dance, and thus we play, 

On glorious Independence Day ; 

Rub more rosin on your bow, 

And let us have another go. 

Zounds, as sure as eggs and bacon, 

There's Ensign Sneak and uncle Deacon, 

And there's the Squire, too, with his lady — 

Sail, hold the beast, I'll take the baby, 

Moll, bring the Squire our great arm-chair — 

Good folks, we're glad to see you here ; 

Jotham, get the great case bottle, 

Your teeth can pull the corn-cob stopple. 

Ensign — Deacon, never mind ; 

Squire, drink until you're blind ; 

Come, here's the French and Guillotine, ■ 

And here is good Squire Gallatin, 

And here's each noisy Jacobin. 

Here's friend Madison so hearty, 

And here's confusion to the treaty. 

Come, one more swig to Southern Demos 

Who represent our brother negros. 

Thus we drink and dance away 

This glorious IndependenceDay I 

This is No. 5 of a series of Vermont reprints which The Age purposes to 
publish weekly during the year. These reprints will also appear as leaflets, 
printed on good white paper 8 1-2 x 11 1-2 for distribution by Vermont citi- 
zens and for use in reading and study in Vermont public schools. The leaf- 
lets are sold in lots of not less than 25, for 25 cents, mailed post free. 

The previous numbers are: "The Independent Farmer," by Thomas 
Green Fessenden ; "Love and Liberty , " by Royal Tyler; "The Green Moun- 
tain Boys," by William Cullen Bryant; "Vermont," by William G. Brown. 



VERMONT WINTER-SONG 



Do ye know, do ye know, far away in the North, 

Is a land full of beautiful things ; 
Where the snow-flakes are pure as the white summer rose, 

And the merry, merry sleigh-bell rings ? 

Oh, this land has a charm to all others unknown, 

When old Winter conies scowling along ! 
Old Winter ! the Beason for pleasure and mirth, 

For the dance and the blithe, jolly song. 

When the daylight is o'er, and the stars in the sky, 

And the moonbeams are playing about, 
Is a right joyous time for the beaux, and the girls 

With their dear pretty smiles, to be out. 

Oh, the blithe, merry ride, over hill, over dale, 

Over ice, and o'er mountains of snow ! 
'.' With swift Morgan horses " as fleet as the deer, 

Full of fun, full of life, on they go ! 

Oh, the sleigh-rides they have in the Green Mountain State, 

Do ye know, do ye know what they are, 
When the pure icy crystals are all lighted up 

By the moon and the glittering star? 

Hark, hark to the bells, how they jingle along, 

'Mid the laugh and the wild note of glee ! 
While the hearts that are beating 'neath wrappers and furs 

From all shackles but true love are free. 

And then when arrived, what a glorious sight 

Is the cheering, the bright rosy fire! 
How it rises, and crackles, and blazes away, 

As they pile the wood higher and higher! 

And now for the dance, and the frolic and game, 

While the nuts aud apples go round, 
What a time! what a time! while, with song and with shout, 

The gay, merry voices resound. 

Vermont, loved Vermont, with thy soft Summer charms, 
With thy wild winds and deep Winter snows! 

Dear, dear are thy glad, festive visions of joy, 
And dear are thy scenes of repose. 

How peaceful the hearth of thy laboring sons, 

When the cares of the daylight are o'er. 
With their warm, honest hearts, and their strong, hardy frames, 

By exercise formed to endure! 

Then hail to Vermont, with her wool and her corn, 
With her cheese, " and all that sort of thing ! " 
Let her snows beat away, and her winter-gales blow, 
Yet, hail to Vermont, we will sing ! 

MARY CUTTS. 
Written about 1852. 



This is No. 6 of a series of Vermont reprints which The Age purposes to 
publish weekly during the year. These reprints will also appear as leaflets, 
printed on good white paper 8 1-2x11 1-2 for distribution by Vermont citi- 
zens and for use in reading and study in Vermont public schools. The leaf- 
lets are sold in lots of not less than 25, for 25 cents, mailed post free. 

The previous numbers are: "The Independent Farmer," by Thomas 
Green Fessenden ; "Love and Liberty," by Royal Tyler; "The Green Moun- 
tain Boys," by William Cullen Bryant; "Vermont, " by William G. Brown; 
"Ode to Independence Day," by Royal Tyler. 



A PICTURE 



Charles G. Eastman, born at Fryeburg, Maine, 1816, died at Montpelier 
in 1860. He moved with his parents at an early age to Barnard; was 
educated at Royalton Academy, Windsor Academy, Kimball Union Academy, 
Meriden, N. H., and the University of Vermont; in 1838 established the 
Lamoille Express, at Johnson; in 1840 came to Woodstock and founded the 
Spirit of the Age; in 1846 bought the Vermont Patriot at Montpelier, and 
continued in its editorship until his death. Published the first edition of his 
poems in 1848. 

The farmer sat in his easy-chair, 

Smoking his pipe of clay, 
While his hale old wife with busy care 
Was clearing the dishes away ; 
A sweet little girl, with fine blue eyes, 
On her grandfather's knee was catching flies. 

The old man laid his hand on her head, 

With a tear on his wrinkled face, 
He thought how often her mother, dead, 
Used to sit in the self-same place ; 
As the tear stole down from his half-shut eye, 
"Don't smoke," said the child, "how it makes you 
cry." 

The house-dog lay stretched out on the floor, 
Where the shade, after noon, used to steal, 
The busy old wife by the open door. 
Was turning the spinning wheel ; 
And the old brass clock on the mantle-tree 
Had plodded along to almost three ; — 

Still the farmer sat in his easy-chair, 

While close to his heaving breast 
The moistened brow and the cheek so fair 
Of his sweet grandchild were pressed ; 
His head, bent down, on her soft hair lay, — 
Fast asleep were they both, that summer day? 

Charles G. Eastman. 



This is No. 7 of a series of Vermont reprints which The Age purposes to 
publish weekly during the year. These reprints will also appear as leaflets, 
printed on good white paper 8 1-2 x 11 1-2 for distribution by Vermont citi- 
zens and for use in reading and study in Vermont public schools. The leaf- 
lets are sold in lots of not less than 25, for 25 cents, mailed post free. 

The previous numbers are: "The Independent Farmer," by Thomas 
Green Fessenden ; "Love and Liberty," by Royal Tyler; "The Green Moun- 
tain Boys," by William Cullen Bryant; "Vermont," by William G. Brown; 
"Ode to Independence Day," by Royal Tyler; "Vermont Winter-Song," 
by Mary Cutts. 



Comic Miseries 



John Geoffrey Saxe was a distinguished American humorous 
poet, born in Franklin County, Vermont, in 1816. He graduated at 
Middlebury College in 1839, and subsequently became editor of the 
" Burlington Sentinel." He was elected State's attorney in 1851. 
A collection of his poems appeared in 1849. They rank among the 
most successful productions of their kind, and have obtained 
extensive popularity. Died March 31, 1887. 



My dear young friend, whose shining wit 

Sets all the room ablaze, 
Don't think yourself " a happy dog," 

For all your merry ways ; 
But learu to wear a sober phiz, 

Be stupid, if you can, 
It's such a very serious thing 

To be a funny man ! 

You're at an evening party, with 

A group of pleasant folks, — 
You venture quietly to crack 

The least of little jokes, — 
A lady doesn't catch the point, 

And begs you to explain— 
Alas ! for one who drops a jest 

And takes it up again ! 

You're talking deep philosophy 

With very special force 
To edify a clergyman 

With suitable discourse, — 
You think you've got him, — when he calls 

A friend across the way, 
And begs you'll say that funny thing 

You said the other day ! 

You drop a pretty jeu-de-mot 

Into a neighbor's ears, 
Who likes to give you credit for 

The clever thing he hears, 



And so he hawks your jest about — 

The old, authentic one — 
Just breaking off the point of it, 

And leaving out the pun ! 

By sudden change in politics, 

Or sadder change in Polly, 
You lose your love, or loaves, and fall 

A prey to melancholy, 
While everybody marvels why 

Your mirth is under ban — 
They think your very grief "a joke", 

You're such a funny man ! 

You follow up a stylish card. 

That bids you come and dine, 
And bring along your freshest wit, 

( To pay for musty wine ; ) 
You're looking very dismal, when 

My lady bounces in, 
And wonders what you are thinking of, 

And why you don't begin ! 

You're telling to a knot of friends 

A fancy-tale of woes 
That cloud your matrimonial sky, 

And banish all repose, — 
A solemn lady overhears 

The story of your strife, 
And tells the town the pleasant news ; 

You quarrel with your wife. 

Mv dear young friend, whose shining wit 

Sets all the room ablaze, 
Don't think yourself a " happy dog," 

For all your merry ways ; 
But learn to wear a sober phiz, 

Be stupid if you can, 
It's such a very serious thing 

To be a funny man ! 

John G. Saxe 



This is No. 8 of a series of Vermont reprints which The Age purposes to 
publish weekly during the year. These reprints will also appear as leaflets, 
printed on good white paper 8 1-2 x 11 1-2 for distribution by Vermont citi- 
zens and for use in reading and study in Vermont public schools. The leaf- 
lets are sold in lots of not less than 25, for 25 cents, mailed post free. 

The previous numbers are: "The Independent Farmer," by Thomas 
Green Fessenden ; "Love and Liberty," by Royal Tyler; "The Green Moun- 
tain Boys," by William Cullen Bryant; "Vermont," by William G. Brown; 
"Ode to Independence Day," by Royal Tyler; "Vermont Winter-Song," 
by Mary Cutts; "A Picture," by Charles G. Eastman. 



Come All Ye Laboring Hands 

Thomas Rowley, one of the very earliest of Vermont's versifiers. One 
of the first settlers of Danby, and its first representative in the General 
Assembly, 1778-82. In 1778 was the chief judge of Rutland county. Removed 
to Shoreham about 1786; died in Benson abeut 1803. 

This poem is an invitation to the poor tenants that live under their 
pateroons, in the province of New York, to come and settle on our good 
lands under the New Hampshire grants; composed at the time when the 
land-jobbers of New York served their writs of ejectment on a number of our 
settlers, the execution of which was opposed by force, until the matter could 
be laid before the King and Board of Trade and Plantations for their direc- 
tions. 

Come, all ye laboring hands, 

That toil below, 
Among the rocks and sands ; 

That plough and sow 
Upon your hired lands 
Let our by cruel hands ; 
'T will make you large amends 

To Rutland go. 

Your pateroons forsake, 

Whose greatest care 
Is slaves of you to make, 

While you live there ; 
Come, quit their barren lands, 
And leave them in their hands ; 
'T will ease you of their bands 

To Rutland go. 

For who would be a slave 

That may be free ? 
Here you good land may have. — 

But come and see. 
The soil is deep and good 
Here in this pleasant wood, 
Where you may raise your food, 

And happy be. 

Here churches we'll erect, 

Both neat and fine ; 
The Gospel we'll protect, 

Pure and divine ; 
The Pope's supremacy 
We utterly deny, 
And Louis we defy, — 

We're George's men. 

In George we will rejoice, — 

He is our king, 
We will obey his voice 

In everything ; 
Here we his servants stand 
Upon his conquered land, — 
Good Lord ! may he defend 

Our property. 

Thomas Rowley. 

This is No. 9 of a series of Vermont reprints which The Age purposes to 
publish weekly during the year. These reprints will also appear as leaflets, 
printed on good white paper 8 1-2 x 11 1-2 for distribution by Vermont citi- 
zens and for use in reading and study in Vermont public schools. The leaf- 
lets are sold in lots of not less than 25, for 25 cents, mailed post free. 

The previous numbers are: "The Independent Farmer," by Thomas 
Green Fessenden ; "Love and Liberty," by Royal Tyler; "The Green Moun- 
tain Boys," by William Cullen Bryant; "Vermont," by William G. Brown; 
"Ode to Independence Day," by Royal Tyler; "Vermont Winter-Song," 
by Mary Cutts; "A Picture," by Charles G. Eastman; "Comic Miseries," 
by John G. Saxa. 



The First Vermonters 



Samuel Williams was born at Waltham, Mass., in 1743, was educated in 
the schools of Cambridge and Rutland, and graduated from Harvard College. 
He was a Congregational minister and preached at different periods of his 
life, in Bradford, Mass., and Burlington and Rutland, Vt. 

For eight years he was Hollis professor of Mathematics at Harvard 
College and for two years lectured on astronomy and natural philosophy in 
the University of Vermont. The degree of LL. D., was conferred on him 
by Edinburgh University. 

Dr. Williams owned and edited the Rutland Herald for some years. He 
published a number of sermons and other papers, but is best known as the 
author of "The Natural and Civil History of Vermont," published in 1794; a 
second edition of this book was brought out in 1809. 

His son, Charles K. Williams, was a prominent lawyer and later gov- 
ernor or Vermont. 



The character of the people who settled on the 
New Hampshire grants, 1760 to 1770, is thus set forth 
by Dr. Samuel Williams, the first historian of Vermont. 
On first reading this description of early Vermonters 
may seem a little too severe. On second thought one 
must conclude that it is probably quite accurate : 

"The main body of settlers at that time consisted 
of a brave, hardy, intrepid, but uncultivated set of men, 
without many of the advantages of education, without 
any other property than what hard labour and hard 
living had procured, destitute of the conveniences and 
the elegancies of life, and having nothing to soften or 
refine their manners, roughness, excess and violence 
would naturally mark their proceedings. To deny 
such people justice was to prejudice and arm them 
against it ; to confirm all those suspicions and preju- 
dices against their rulers, and to give them an 
excuse and plea to proceed to outrage and violence. 
When the government of New York gave to these pro- 
ceedings the names of mobs and riots, abuse and out- 
rage, it is probable that such expressions conveyed 
pretty just ideas of the appearance of their conduct 
and opposition to the laws. But when they called 
their opposition treason, felony, and rebellion against 
lawful authority, the people of the adjoining provinces 
seem to have believed that the government of New 
York was much more blamable in making and exercis- 
ing such laws as called these titles to their lands in 
question, than the settlers were in acting in open and 
avowed opposition to them. 



This is No. 10 of a series of Vermont reprints which The Age purposes to 
publish weekly during the year. These reprints will also appear as leaflets, 
printed on good white paper 8 1-2x11 1-2 for distribution by Vermont citi- 
zens and for use in reading and study in Vermont public schools. The leaf- 
lets are sold in lots of not less than 25, for 25 cents, mailed post free. 

The previous numbers are: "The Independent Farmer," by Thomas 
Green Fessenden ; "Love and Liberty ," by Royal Tyler; "The Green Moun- 
tain Boys," by William Cullen Bryant; "Vermont," by William G. Brown; 
"Ode to Independence Day," by Royal Tyler; "Vermont Winter-Song," 
byMaryCutts; "A Picture, " by Charles G.Eastman; "Comic Miseries," 
by John G. Saxe; "Come All Ye Laboring Hands," by Thomas Rowley. 



Green Mountain Home 



Achsa W. Sprague; born in Vermont; died in Plymouth in 1862. Author 
of "The Poet, and Other Poems." 



I pine, I pine for my woodland home; 

I long for the mountain stream 
That through the dark ravine flows on 

Till it finds the sun's bright beam. 
I long to catch once more a breath 

Of my own pure mountain air, 
And lay me down on the flowery turf 

In the dim old forest there. 

O, for a gush of the wildwood strain 

That the birds sang to me then 1 
O, for an hour of the fresher life 

I knew in that haunted glen ! 
For my path is now in the strangers land, 

And though I may love full well 
Their grand old trees and their flowery meads, 

Yet I pine for thee, sweet dell. 

I've sat in the homes of the proud and great, 

I've gazed on the artists pride, 
Yet never a pencil has painted thee, 

Thou rill of the mountain side. 
And though bright and fair may be other lands, 

And as true their friends and free, 
Yet my spirit will ever fondly turn, 

Green Mountain Home, to thee. 



This is No. 11 of a series of Vermont reprints which The Age purposes to 
publish weekly during the year. These reprints will also appear as leaflets, 
printed on good white paper 8 1-2 x 11 1-2 for distribution t>y Vermont citi- 
zens and for use in reading and study in Vermont public schools. The leaf- 
lets are sold in lots of not less than 25, for 25 cents, mailed post free. 
Address]The Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vermont. 

The previous numbers are: "The Independent Farmer," by Thomas 
Green Fessenden ; "Love and Liberty ," by Royal Tyler; "The Green Moun- 
tain Boys," by William Cullen Bryant; "Vermont, " by William G. Brown; 
"Ode to Independence Day," by Royal Tyler; "Vermont Winter-Song," 
by Mary Cutts; "A Picture," by Charles G.Eastman; "Comic Miseries," 
by John G. Saxe; "Come All Ye Laboring Hands," by Thomas Rowley; 
"The First Vermonters, " by Samuel Williams. 



My Mountain Land 



By Charles Lindsley of Rutland. Written before 1858. 

Give me my own, my native land, 
My rushing streams and swelling springs, 
My verdant vales, where Flora flings 
Her choicest flower with lavish hand. 
Give me the hills, where eagles soar ; 
The frowning rocks, which storms defy ; 
The fleecy clouds that proudly lie 
On Carmel's towering summit hoar. 
Give me Winooski's sparkling flow, 
Ascutney's bosom swelling high, 
The countless flocks and herds that lie 
In gay white fields where clovers grow. 

Our hands are strong, our rifles true, 
And though we're men of peace and laws, 
Yet boldly we for freedom's cause 
Will strike among our mountains blue. 

We blanch not at the battle's noise ; 

We quail not when the foe is nigh ; 

On Plattsburgh plains our victor cry 

Was heard, the bold " Green Mountain Boys. 

For we are cradled in the storm, 

And dauntless hearts possessed our sires ; 

When Stark's and Warner's battle fires 

Flashed high, the patriot's heart to warm. 

New England's Nile our border laves 
New England's blood in us doth flow, 
And heart and hand for her we'll go, 
Where Champlain rolls her foaming waves. 
Then give me my own mountain land, 
My father-land, the land I love, 
Whose dark green hills I prize above 
Potosi's mines or India's strand. 



This is No. 12 of a series of Vermont reprints which The Age purposes to 
publish weekly during the year. These reprints will also appear as leaflets, 
printed on good white paper 8 1-2 x 11 1-2 for distribution by Vermont citi- 
zens and for use in reading and study in Vermont public schools. The leaf- 
lets are sold in lots of not less than 25, for 25 cents, mailed post free. 
Address'jThe Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vermont. 

The previous numbers are: "The Independent Farmer," by Thomas 
Green Fessenden ; "Love and Liberty ," by Royal Tyler; "The Green Moun- 
tain Boys," by William Cullen Bryant; "Vermont," by William G. Brown; 
"Ode to Independence Day," by Royal Tyler; "Vermont Winter-Song," 
by Mary Cutts; "A Picture," by Charles G.Eastman; "Comic Miseries," 
by John G. Saxe; "Come All Ye Laboring Hands," by Thomas Rowley; 
"The First Vermonters," by Samuel Williams ; " Green Mountain Home," 
by Achsa W. Sprague. 



Ethan Allen 

By C. L. Goodell of Calais. 

Mr Goodell claims for the poem, of which the lines below form about 
a third, no special merit. It was written, before 1838, as a college exercise 
when he was at the University in Burlington. 

A strong, bold man was he in form and mind, 

Though little in our modern schools refined. 

Like forest oak grown strong by wind and storm, 

Such was his lion mien and hardy form ; 

' 'A dauntless spirit sat upon his brow, 

That would not yield, and could not bow." 

He lived in earnest, and from nature caught 

The fire of action and of manly thought. 

To sword or plow he gave a ready hand, 

And worked as zealous on, as for the land. 

No traitor's taint, no coward's fear had he, 

His eagle spirit loved the bold and free ; 

No insult brooking, stooping to no wrong, 

The right defending, fearless of the strong. 

His creed of rights was learned from Nature's page, 

The aid of master minds of every age, 

Till it the passion of his life became 

To guard his country's rights — defend its name. 

And add an iron will, an honest heart, 

A mind to plan, a hand to act its part, 

A hope that glowed, though ne'er a gladening ray 

Foretold the coming of a brighter day, 

You have the outline of that stalwart peer, 

Whom Nature trained to guard her wild frontier ; 

And through his checkered life he never proved, 

In truth or duty, false unto the cause he loved. 



This is No. 13 of a series of Vermont reprints which The Age purposes to 
publish weekly during the year. These reprints will also appear as leaflets, 
printed on good white paper 8 1-2x11 1-2 for distribution by Vermont citi- 
zens and for use in reading and study in Vermont public schools. Ine leal- 
lets are sold in lots of not less than 25, for 25 cents, mailed post free. 
AddresslThe Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vermont. 

The previous numbers are: "The Independent Farmer, " by Thomas 
Green Fessenden ; "Love and Liberty," by Royal Tyler; "The Green Moun- 
tain Boys," by William Cullen Bryant; "Vermont," by William G. Brown; 
"Ode to Independence Day," by Royal Tyler; "Vermont Wmter-Song,^ 
bvMary Cutts; "A Picture," by Charles G. Eastman; "Comic Miseries, 
bv John G. Saxe; "Come All Ye Laboring Hands," by Thomas Rowley; 
•'The First Vermonters," by Samuel Williams ; " Green Mountain Home, 
by Achsa W. Sprague; "My Mountain Land," by Charles Lindsley. 



Wake Up, Vermont 



Reprint from New York Sun. 

The census of 1910 gave Mr. William S. Rossiter, a competent authority, 
an opportunity to present Vermont's losses in population by towns in a 
sombre light that compels reflection. The fruit of his labors appears in the 
Quarterly of the American Statistical Association. His figures bearing upon 
agriculture and industry, as well as population, may be taken for granted. 
A ray of light relieves the depressing gloom. Mr. Rossiter says : 

"While it is true that the population returns lor Vermont offer to 
the student perhaps the gloomiest statistical picture to be found at the 
present time in the United States, the State is still very far irom 
material or population catastrophe, and unquestionably still possesses 
in her own people the remedy for many ills " 

This conclusion is evident from the steadily rising value of manu- 
factured products, §32,000,000 in 1880 and 857,500,000 in 1900 (the 
figures for 1910 were not available when Mr. Rossiter prepared his 
naner ) and an enconrapinff improvement in farm values, chiefly in the 



10. The First Vermont.ers, by Samuel Williams. 

11. Green Mountain Home, by Achsa W. Sprague. 

12. My Mountain Land, bv Charles Lindsley. 

13. Ethan Allen, by C. L.'Goodell. 

11. Wake Up, Vermont, from the New York Sun. 




Fold-out 
Placeholder 



This fold-out is being digitized, and will be inserted at a 
future date. 



Vermont Broadsides 

Literary and Historical 

From the Elm Tree Press: Woodstock, Vermont. 

In this column have appeared in the past fourteen 
weeks the twelve poems and two prose selections named 
in the list below. All these were either written by 
Vermonters or relate to some Vermont scene, some 
incident in Vermont's history or some noteworthy Ver- 
mont character. They have all been printed singly in 
attractive style on large sheets and are offered for sale 
in sets of 25 for 25 cents, post paid. They are sold only 
in sets of 25 ; but that number may be made up by 
selecting from the whole series. 

These Vermont Broadsides have already attracted a 
good deal of interest, especially among the school men 
of the State. Good Vermont poems and brief, interest' 
ing prose extracts from Vermont biography, description 
and history are not easily found. These Broadsides, 
can in a measure supply the needs of the schools in this 
direction. They can be used for declamations, as read- 
ing lessons, as subjects of talks and compositions and in 
many other ways. Their cost is so slight that a school 
district can for a very small sum secure a supply which 
will last for many terms. 

The children in our schools should study their own 
state history thoroughly ; and for such study there is a 
text-book in the excellent school history by Collins. To 
the interest which knowledge of their state's history 
will give them should be added that keen interest which 
grows out of familiar acquaintance with the songs, 
stories and romances with which the poets and the story- 
tellers have supplied us, and with the striking, adven- 
turous, and heroic deeds which have not been wanting 
in the 140 years of the State's history. It is out of 
literature of this kind, which presents to them the best 
aspects of this country in a striking and attractive way, 
that children construct for themselves an ideal State in 
which they are deeply interested and for which they 
have sympathy and affection. To help in developing 
interest in sympathy and affection for and reasonable 
devotion to Vermont in the children of Vermont is the 
purpose chiefly held in mind in publishing these Broad- 
sides. 

Many of the State's adult citizens will find them worth 
reading and worth ordering. 

The series will be continued. 

The list to date is as follows : 

1. The Independent Farmer, by Thomas Green Fessenden. 

2. Love and Liberty, by Royal Tyler. 

3. The Green Mountain Boys, by William Cullen Bryant. 

4. Vermont, by William G. Brown. 

5. Ode to Independence Day, by Royal Tyler. 
6 Vermont Winter-Song, by Mary Cutts. 

7. A Picture, by Charles G. Eastman. 

8. Comic Miseries, by John G. Saxe. 

9. Come All Ye Laboring Hands, by Thomas Rowley. 

10. The First Vermonters, by Samuel Williams. 

11. Green Mountain Home, by Achsa W. Sprague. 

12. My Mountain Land, by Charles Lindsley. 

13. Ethan Allen, by C. L. Gobdell. 

14. Wake Up, Vermont, from the New York Sun. 



Of the Unique and Inspiring History of 
Vermont 

By William S. Rossiter. Mr. Rossiter was formerly expert special agent and 
chief cleric of the United States Census Office. He prepared an historical and sta- 
tistical study of th*» progress of Vermont which was to form part of an official 
document of the State The document was never issued and Mr. Rossiter's study 
was published in the Quarterly of the American Statistical Association for March, 
1911. Its publication led to the expression of opinions not very complimentary to 
Vermont in the Transcript of Boston and the Sun and Post of New York. These 
opinions and the study itself have disturbed the peace of mind of the men in 
authority in the State. 

The following extract from the opening paragraph of the study shows that Mr. 
Rossiter wrote of Vermont with all good will and with a sympathy born of knowl- 
edge of her excellent history : 

Vermont was never a separate British Colony. The period which tried men's 
souls in the New Hampshire Giants, as Vermont was then designated, was the half 
century of struggle to preserve the individual home from the cupidity of New 
Yorkers, and civic independence from the injustice of the Continental Congress. 

The people of Vermont bore the brunt of many of the northern battles of the 
Revolution, both on land and water, solely from principle and from a keen sense of 
kinship. These convictions they proved with Arnold on Lake Champlain, and at 
Bennington and Saratoga, yet the Green Mountain people had no personal quarrel 
with Great Britain. In fact, much was to be gained by peace with the mother 
country, since the success of the British meant immunity from border warfare and 
the dignity of a separate colonial establishment. On the other hand, rebellion 
meant the exposure of the entire northern and western borders to the incursions of 
British and Indians, and this merelv to aid the men of other colonies, who planned 
to divide among two states, at least, the area comprised in Vermont, which was 
still practically without a name. 

Realization of the exceptional and extraordinary conditions which confronted 
the people of Vermont during the Revolutionary period, fully justifies the assertion 
that the patriotism, self-restraint, and sagacity which they exhibited have never 
been surpassed by the people of any other state in the Union 

The subsequent, history of Vermont has been much affected by the events of 
the formative period. The traits and traditions of the fathers have endured. The 
people have continued sedate and self-controlled at home, and patriotic and saga- 
cious in national councils In consequence Vermont has exercised an influence in 
Congress much greater than might be expected from the size and population of the 
state. 

So unique and inspiring has been the history of Vermont that no discussion of 
present day population or economic conditions within the state will be complete 
unless preceded by a summary of the manner in which the ancestors of the citizens 
of to lav won success ny arms and council and diplomacy The achievement of 
these early leaders cannot be too closelv studied, not only as throwing much light 
upon the conditions and characteristics which prevail at the present time, but 
especially as a source of inspiration and encouragement in solving some of the 
problems which beset and tend to discourage some Vermont communities of today. 
Moreover, the other states of the Union have travelled so far from the conditions 
which prevailed in youth, that the early history of anv one of them would have lit- 
tle direct bearing upon latter day problems. In Vermont the change has been les- 
marked. Her hills still rear their lofty sides to the clouds, clad with green as 
when Ethan Allen threatened to retire to their solitudes with his fellow-citizens 
and wage war with the world in defense of Vermont's independence; the popula- 
tion of the state continues comparatively small, and remains distinctly agricultural 
at, a time when all America is city mad. The people are principally of the native 
stock ; they dwell much as their fathers dwelt, not in large towns, but in small 
hamlets and upon mountain sides, in the narrow, irregular valleys, by the blue 
waters of lakes, or upon the banks of hurrying rivers. 

To these men, many of whom live in the same houses which the men of '76 
constructed, the achievements of the fathers may well prove a mighty inspiration 
toward the greater and finer Vermont, of the future. 



Of the Unique and Inspiring History of 
Vermont 

By William S. Rossiter. Mr. Rossiter was formerly expert special agent and 
chief clerk of the United States Census Office. He prepared an historical and sta- 
tistical study of the progress of Vermont which was to form part of an official 
document of the State' The document was never issued and Mr. Rossiter's study 
was published in the Quarterly of the American Statistical Association for March, 
1911. Its publication led to the expression of opinions not very complimentary to 
Vermont in the Transcript of Boston and the Sun and Post of New York. These 
opinions and the study itself have disturbed the peace of mind of the men in 
authority in the State. 

The following extract is taken from the concluding pages of Mr. Rossiter's ad- 
mirable and sympathetic study of past and present conditions in Vermont : 

While it is true that the population returns for Vermont offer to the student 
perhaps the gloomiest statistical picture to be found at the present time in the 
United States, the state is still very far from material or population catastrophe, 
and unquestionably still possesses in her own people the remedy for many ills. 

Historical narrative is often out of place in a statistical paper, but the sketch 
of the early trials of the state of Vermont, which appears at the beginning of this 
study, was included with a definite purpose The story of the New Hampshire 
Grants is a record of extraordinary persistence, self-restraint, and sagacity on the 
part of the leaders and people of that period. By the patient exercise of these 
qualities, complete success was achieved The population of Vermont in 1910 is 
more than six-fold greater than it was in 1785 ; the number of present-day Ver- 
monters possessing in full measure the fine traits of the fathers, is much greater 
than the number of those who shaped the early destinies of the state. It is a sig- 
nificant fact that in a recently issued and authoritative publication presenting bio 
graphical sketches of more than 17,000 Americans who are considered to have 
attained greatest eminence in all walks of life and in all callings, Vermont is near 
to leading the sisterhood of states in the proportion of persons so included to each 
1000 persons born in the state. 

The modern Vermont problem differs sharply from the earlier one. It is not 
a matter of arms and diplomacy, yet it requires exactly the qualities which the 
fathers manifested The state is naturally fertile ; waterpower abounds ; forests 
with proper conservation should be a source of continued wealth. The scenery is 
beautiful to a degree surpassed bv few states in the Union; the climate, though 
severe, is most healthful and invigorating. Hence in this period of rising prices 
for staples of food and of congested urban population seeking the pure air of the 
hills, is not the opportunity of Vermont at hand ? 

If the influential and able element in the state should organize and address 
themselves with unity, energy, money, and enthusiasm to the task of encouraging 
native Americans to settle in the more fertile areas, should seek outlets for their 
products, develop resources, and start new industries, it is reasonable to suppose 
the state would promptly respond in population and prosperity in proportion to the 
effort. In this undertaking, it should not be overlooked that there is an army of 
168,000 allies in the Vermonters in other states, scattered, indeed, all over the 
Union, but possessing an undimmed love for the fatherland. 

Success in any movement to solve the state's present day problem seems to lie 
first in organization. By organization all things are achieved in this age. 

If public opinion in the state favors the modern policy of conservation, let it be 
remembered that today there is no conservation so vitally important to the stale of 
Vermont as the conservation of strong and resourceful men and women. 

Vermont Reprint No. 17. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



Ira Allen 



Condensed from the Twentieth Century Dictionary of Notable Americans. 
1904. 



Ira Allen was born in Cornwall, Conn, April 21, 1751, the 
youngest son of Joseph and Mary Maker Allen, and brother of Ethan, 
Henian, Uebar, and Levi Allen. He received a good English educa- 
tion and became a practical land surveyor when very young He came 
with his brothers to Vermont in 1771. and, with his brothers and 
Remember Maker, founded the Onion River Land Company, the 
largest landed concern in the state. This brought, him in opposition 
to the claims of New York to the territory He served as secretary of 
the committee of safety from its formation to its close He was 
lieutenant in Colonel Warner's regiment in the Canada campaign and 
a trusted confidant of General Montgomery. In the formation of the 
new state in 1778 he was a member of its council and its secretary. 
He was also its first treasurer, serving as such nine years, besides being 
surveyor-general until 1786. He served as captain, colonel and major- 
general of the state militia and as a ruember of the board of war during 
the revolution. He was prominent in negotiations with the English 
and his action helped to save Vermont to the United States. In 1786, 
with his brother Levi, he was commissioned to negotiate a treaty of 
commerce with Canada, and proposed and urged the cutting of a canal 
to connect Lake Champlain with the St Lawrence river, offering to cut 
it at his own expense if the Mritish would allow him to collect tonnage. 
His official connection with the state closed in 1790 with the settlement 
of the controversy with New York. In 17.S9 he presented to the legis- 
lature a memorial for the establishment of Vermont university, and 
with it a subscription list of JE5643. of which he contributed £4000. 
The charter was granted November 3. 1790. In 1795 he went to 
Europe in the interest of his canal project and with a commission from 
the governor to purchase arms for the state He was eight years 
abroad During this time he wrote his " History of Vermont." He 
died in Philadelphia, January 7, 1814 



Vermont Reprint No. 18. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Fress, Woodstock, Vt. 



The Indians of Vermont 

Condensed from Barber's History and Antiquities of New England. 1842. 
Barber copied from Trumbull's History of Connecticut 

Part I 

The New England Indians were large, strait, well 
proportioned men. Their bodies were firm and active, 
capable of enduing the greatest fatigues and hardships. 
Their passive courage was almost incredible. When 
tortured in the most cruel manner they would not 
groan, not show any sign of distress. Nay, in some 
instances they would glory over their tormentors, say- 
ing that their hearts would never be soft until they 
were cold, and representing their torments as sweet as 
Englishmen's sugar. They were exceedingly light of 
foot, and would travel or run a very great distance in 
a day. Mr. Williams says, 'I have known them run 
between eighty and a hundred miles in a summer's day 
and back again within two days. ' As they were accus- 
tomed to the woods, they ran in them nearly as well 
as on plain ground. They were exceedingly quick 
sighted, to discover their enemy, or their game, and 
equally artful to conceal themselves. 

Their features were tolerably regular. Their faces 
were generally full as broad as those of the English, 
but flatter ; they have a small, dark coloured good eye, 
coarse black hair, and a fine white set of teeth. 

The Indians in general were quick of apprehension, 
ingenious, and when pleased nothing could exceed their 
courtesy and friendship. 

Gravity and eloquence distinguished them in council, 
address and bravery in war. They were not more 
easily provoked than the English ; but when once they 
had received an injury it was never forgotten. When 
they have fallen iuto the power of an enemy, they have 
not been known to beg for life, not even to accept it 
when offered them. They have seemed rather to court 
death. They were exceedingly improvident. If they 
had a supply for the present, they gave themselves no 
trouble for the future. The men declined all labor, and 
spent their time in hunting, fishing, shooting and war 
like exercises They were excellent marksmen, and 
rarely missed their game whether running or flying. 

They imposed all their drudgery upon their women. 
They gathered and brought home their wood, planted, 
dressed and gathered in their corn. They carried 
home the venison, fish and fowl, which the men took in 
hunting. When they traveled, the women carried the 
children, packs and provisions. 

Vermont Reprint, No. 19. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



The Indians of Vermont 

Condensed from Barber's History and Antiquities of New England. 1842. 
Barber copied from Trumbull's History of Connecticut 

II 

The Indian women were strong and masculine ; and 
as they were more inured to exercise and hardship than 
the men, were even more firm and capable of fatigue and 
suffering than they. 

The clothing of the Indians in New England, was the 
skins of wild beasts. The men threw a light mantle of 
skins over them, and wore a small flap which was called 
Indian breeches. In the winter their blanket of skins, 
which hung loose in the summer, was tied or wrapped 
more closely about them. The old men in the severe 
seasons also wore a sort of trowsers made of skins and 
fastened to their girdles. They wore shoes without 
heels, which were called moccasins. 

Their ornaments were pendants in their ears and nose, 
carved of bone, shells and stone. These were in the form 
of birds, beasts and fishes. They cut their hair into 
various antic forms and stuck them with feathers. They 
also by incisions into which they conveyed a black or 
blue, unchangeable ink, made on their cheeks, arms, and 
other parts of their bodies, the figures of moose, deer, 
bears, wolves, hawks, eagles and all such living creatures 
as were most agreeable to their fancies. These pictures 
were indelible and lasted during life. 

The Indian houses or wigwams were, at best, but poor 
smoky cells. They were constructed generally like 
arbors, of small young trees bent and twisted together, 
and so curiously covered with mats or bark, that they 
were tolerably dry and warm. The Indians made their 
fire in the centre of the house, and there was an opening 
at the top, which emitted the smoke. 

They lived in a poor low manner. Their food was 
coarse and simple without any kind of seasoning. They 
had neither spice, salt, nor bread. They had neither 
butter, cheese, nor milk. They drank nothing better 
than the water which ran in the brook or spouted from 
the spring. 



Vermont Reprint, No. 20. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



The Indians of Vermont 

Condensed from Barber's History and Antiquities of New England. 1842. 
Barber copied from Trumbull's History of Connecticut 

III 

In the hunting and fishing seasons, they had venison, 
moose, fat bears, racoons, geese, turkies, ducks, and fish 
of all kinds. In the summer they had green corn, beans, 
squashes and the various fruits which the country 
naturally produced. In the winter they subsisted on 
corn, beans, fish, nuts, groundnuts, acorns and the very 
gleamings of the grove. 

They had no set meals, but, like other wild creatures, 
ate when they were hungry, and could find any thiug to 
satisfy the cravings of nature. Sometimes they had little 
or nothing, for several days ; but when they had pro- 
visions they feasted. The earth was both their seat and 
their table. With trenches, knives, and napkins, they 
had no acquaintance. 

Their household furniture was of small value. Their 
best bed was a mat or skin ; they had neither chair nor 
stool. They ever set upon the ground, commonly with 
their elbows upon their knees. A few wooden and stone 
vessels and instruments served all the purposes of 
domestic life. They had no steel nor iron instrument. 
Their knife was a sharp stone, shell, or kind of reed, 
which they sharpened in such a manner, as to cut their 
hair, make their bows and arrows, and served for all the 
purposes of a knife. 

Their arts and manufactures were confined to a very 
narrow compass. Their only weapons were bows and 
arrows, the tomahawk and the wooden sword or spear. 
Their arrows were constructed of young elder sticks, or 
of some other strait sticks and reeds. These were 
headed with a sharp flinty stone, or with bones. The 
tomahawk was a stick of two or three feet in length, 
with a knob at the end. 

With respect to navigation they had made no improve- 
ments beyond the construction and management of the 
hollow trough or canoe. They made their canoes of the 
chestnut, whitewood and pine trees. As these grew 
strait to a great length, and were exceedingly large as 
well as tall, they constructed some, which would carry 
sixty or eighty men. These were first rates ; but com- 
monly they were not more than twenty feet in length, 
and two in breadth. 

They constructed nets, twenty and thirty feet in 
length, for fishing ; especially for the purpose of catch- 
ing sturgeon. These were wrought with cords of Indian 
hemp, twisted by the hands of the women. They had 
also hooks made of flexible bones, which they used for 
fishing. 



This is No. 21 of a series of Vermont reprints which The Age purposes to 
publish weekly during the year. These reprints will also appear as leaflets, 
printed on good white paper 8 1-2 x 11 1-2 for distribution by Vermont citi- 
zens and for use in reading and study in Vermont public schools. The leaf- 
lets are sold in lots of not less than 25, for 25 cents, mailed post free. 
Address The Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vermont. 



Farmers* Boys 

Out in every tempest, out in every gale, 
Buffeting the weather, wind and storm and hail, 

In the meadow mowing, in the shadowy wood, 
Letting in the sunlight where the tall oaks stood, 

Every flitting moment each skillful hand employs — 
Bless me ! were there ever idle farmers' boys ? 

Though the palm be callous holding fast the plough, 
The round cheek is ruddy, and the open brow 

Has no lines and furrows wrought by evil hours, 
For the heart keeps wholesome, trained in Nature's 
bowers : 

Healthy, hearty pastime, the spirit never cloys ; 
Heaven bless the manly, honest farmers' boys, 

At the merry husking, at the apple-bee, 

How their hearts run over with genial, harmless glee ; 

How the country maidens blush with conscious bliss, 
At the love-words whispered with a parting kiss. 

Then the winter evenings, with their social joys — 
Bless me ! they are pleasant, spent with farmers' boys. 

Mrs. Helen M. L. Warner. 



Vermont Reprint No. 22. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



Ira Allen 



From an address by D. P. Thompson before the Vermont Historical Society 
in 1850; reprinted in the Proceedings of the Society for 1908-1909. 

PART I. 

Among the prominent men in early times in Vermont, was one 
whose merits have been strangely overlooked by nearly all who have 
professed to give us a true history of that memorable era. That man 
was General Ira Allen. Although he is at the present day far less 
known than his brother Ethan, and far less, indeed, than most of the 
men who have been represented as controlling the destinies of the 
infant settlement through the whole period of its early anomalous 
history, yet for genius, sagacity, enlarged scope of intellect, high pur- 
poses and energy in executing them, he was inferior to none of them, 
if not superior to them all. Up to the time of the admission of Ver- 
mont into the Union, to which he so greatly contributed, his influence 
was probably more widely felt than that of any other individual in the 
State. 

His name has been somewhat eclipsed by the bolder and more 
dazzling deeds of his brother, the renowned Ethan Allen, whose daring 
character had made him so much a hero of the masses at a crisis which 
particularly demanded such a character, that they were prone to over- 
look the quiet services of Ira Allen, and even to overlook the planner 
of great deeds in the brilliancy of their execution by another. 

He was born in Cornwall, Connecticut, May 1st, 1751, and 
evidently received there, or in some school in the vicinity, a good 
English education, including a clear and correct style of composition, 
and a thorough knowledge of the art of surveying, the former being 
evinced in his perspicuous State papers and his History of Vermont, 
in many respects the best ever published, and the latter in his survey 
of a large portion of the State, which subsequent surveyors ever found 
remarkable for accuracy and judiciousness of allotment. 

Before he was 20 he received a commission to survey certain 
grants near Mt. Mansfield. While on this business he joined others in 
acquiring a large amount of land near Burlington Bay, and thereby 
laid the foundation of his fortune. 

From the opening of the conflict with the Yorkers over the New 
Hampshire Grants till the opening of the Revolution, Ira Allen, while 
still extensively pursuing his explorations and surveys in all parts of 
the State, became one of the most, if not quite the most, active, fear- 
less and indefatigable of all the Green Mountain leaders in ferreting 
out, pursuing, hunting down and routing from the country every 
grade of the officials and employees of the Yorkers. No secrecy of 
movement, and no subterfuges or pretences of innocence availed these 
surveyors and explorers in shielding them against his vigilance and 
sagacity. They feared him even more than Ethan Allen, whom they 
could more easily elude. With them Ethan was the thunder that made 
the noise, but Ira the lightning that did the execution. 



This is No. 23 of a series of Vermont reprints which The Age purposes to 
publish weekly during the year. These reprints will also appear as leaflets, 
printed on good white paper 8 1-2 x 11 1-2 for distribution by Vermont citi- 
zens and for use in reading and study in Vermont public schools. The leaf- 
lets are sold in lots of not less than 25, for 25 cents, mailed post free. 
Address The Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vermont. 



Ira Allen 



From an address by D. P. Thompson before the Vermont Historical Society 
in 1850; reprinted in the Proceedings of the Society for 1908-1909. 



Part II 

But this work of ferreting out and expelling the Yorkers occu- 
pied but a small portion of Allen's time. The main business which 
occupied his time and attention was surveying and exploring wild 
lands; and these objects were so industriously and extensively prose- 
cuted, from the time of his coming into the country to the outbreak 
of the Revolutionary war that, by the last named event, there prob- 
ably was not a township, nor a tract of ungranted land large enough 
to make one, in all the Grants, which he had not visited, and with 
the situation and natural capabilities of which he was not pretty ac- 
curately acquainted. And it was during this period, mostly, that he 
acquired the immense landed estate, which was eventually found in 
his possession. 

Ira Allen, while the York controversy was culminating, had 
reached the full bloom of his early manhood. And it is no exaggera- 
tion to say that he was, in his personal appearance, one of the finest 
looking men in Vermont He was nearly six feet in height, and his 
body was faultlessly proportioned. With a shapely head, high, ex- 
tensive forehead, dark hair, dark eyes, and clearly cut handsome feat- 
ures, he presented an unusually prepossessing exterior, which, in his 
case, at least, was but a true token of a physical organization through- 
out alike well calculated for health, activity, and endurance. To these 
personal advantages, united to his affable and winning manners, he 
was no doubt much indebted for his popularity and success, but much 
more to his intellect, which was certainly of no common order. His 
mind was unusually clear and comprehensive, enabling him uner- 
ringly to grasp the whole of a subject presented for his consideration; 
while his keen perceptions and acute discrimination served him no 
less unfailingly in unraveling its complications, and discovering all 
its various bearings on the question in hand. These leading traits 
of his mind, together with its wonderful fertility in expedients, and 
his skill in reading and estimating men's motives, always made him 
competent to form his plans understandingly and wisely, and ready 
to meet and counteract those of his opponents, or turn them to his 
advantage. He was emphatically a man who did his own thinking. 

In February, 1776, having seen the Yorkers effectually expelled 
from the Grants, he turned his whole soul to the projecting of a law 
for the establishment of a new state. And having drawn all the out- 
lines and main features of a plan for the formation of a state civil 
government, which he deemed most consonant with the genius and 
needs of the people for whom it was intended, he, for the next suc- 
ceeding year or more, devoted almost entirely his time and energies 
to the advancement of his important project. 

Mr. Thompson goes on to recount in a most interesting manner 
Ira Allen's work for Vermont during the succeeding 20 years, work 
which is properly appreciated by very few. Some philanthropist 
should publish editions of the address and place it tn every school 
and every library in Vermont. 



Vermont Reprint No. 24. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



The Sword and the Plough 

Far back in time's departed years, 

Ere earth was drenched in blood and tears, 

Two brothers from their father's hearth, 

Went forth to toil upon the earth ; 

Each with stout heart and hardy frame, 

And each in search of wealth and fame : 

One was the Sword with haughty brow, 

The other was the humble Plough. 

The Sword, the fairest of the twain, 

Was reckless, cruel, dark and vain ; 

A daring and ambitious youth, 

The foe of virtue, peace and truth. 

Forth from his father's hearth he sprang, 

While far and wide his praises rang ; 

Yet mercy shuddered as he came, 

And fled, affrighted, at his name ! 

Men shrank in terror from hiswrath, 

While cities blazed along his path ; 

Kingdoms into the dust he hurled, 

And bound in chains a wondering world. 

In every land, in every clime, 

He wreathed his brow with blood and crime, 

Yet still the life-devouring Sword 

Was praised, exalted and adored. 

As bold, the humble Plough went forth 

But not to desolate the earth — 

To counteract God's wondrous plan, 

And swell the countless woes of man ; 

But with the heart and hand of toil 

To break the deep and fruitful soil — 

To scatter wealth on every hand, 

And beautify and bless the land. 

He made the nations thrive in peace 

And swelled their stores with rich increase ; 

Bound the torn heart of want and woe, 

And made the land with plenty flow ; 

And scattered, wheresoe'er he trod, 

The golden harvest-gifts of God ! 

Yet even then, and until now, 

Men have despised the humble Plough. 

Thus bow the nations to adore 

The wretch who stains their hearths with gore, 

And thus despise the humble mind 

That toils to bless the human kind ; 

Yet it shall not be so for "aye," 

For lo ! there comes a brighter day, 

When, through the darkness of the past, 

The sun of Truth shall gleam at last. 

Then shall the carnage-loving Sword, 

So long exalted and adored, 

Sink in forgetfulness and shame 

Till men shall cease to know his name ; 

Then shall the plow, despised so long, 

Be theme for universal song : 

The first of all in Honor's van, 

The noblest of the friends of man ! 

F. Benjamin Gage. 

Vermont Reprint No. 25. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



The Grave of Ethan Allen 

EXTRACTS. 

Upon Winooski's pleasant shore 

Brave Allen sleeps — his labors o'er — 

And there beneath the murmuring pine 

Is freedom's consecrated shrine. 

And every patriot's heart will swell 

With thoughts no human tongue can tell, 

As, bending o'er that lowly grave, 

He pays his homage to the brave. 

Should war's dread clarion sound again, 

His ear were silent to the strain ; 

And Freedom's voice no more could thrill 

That pulseless heart, so cold and still. 

The old grey stone above his head 

Might echo to a nation's tread, 

Pressing with reverence the sod 

Where slumbers that old hero-god ; 

But all were powerless to break 

The spell, and bid the warrior wake. 

That keen bright eye that, undismayed, 

Looked on the quivering battle-blade, 

That powerful arm, whose lightest stroke 

Could almost rend the mountain oak, 

That voice, that raised the startling cry^- 

" Surrender ! " at the fort of Ti, — 

That courage, failure could not chill, 

But hoped, believed, and struggled still, 

That soul, that, scorning tyrants' laws, 

Struck for his country and her cause — 

At last was conquered by a foe 

Who never strikes an erring blow. 

He sank to rest ; but left a name 

That shall a hero's honors claim, 

In every clime, on every shore, 

Till this fair land shall be no more — 

This goodly land, to free whose soil 

From tyrant rule, he spared no toil, 

And lent his hand to aid her birth 

Among the nations of the earth. 

Beneath broad heaven's azure dome 

She stands, fair Freedom's chosen home, 

Without a rival or a mate, 

Our own beloved Green Mountain State. 

Then let it be our earnest aim 

To cherish every noble name ; 

That ages yet to come may read 

Each worthy name, each valiant deed, 

And know with what a fearless hand 

Our fathers struck for life and land. 

Their names are many ; but among 

That matchless crowd, that peerless throng, 

There's one that shines for us alone, 

Whose deathless glory is our own ; 

His memory then should ever be 

Dear to our hearts as liberty ; 

And while our country has a name 

Let us preserve our Allen's fame. 

Mary A. Huntoon. 

Vermont Reprint No. 26. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



What My Uncle Jerry Says 

Charles G. Eastman, born at Fryeburg, Maine, 1816, died at 
Montpelier in 1860. He moved with his parents at an early age 
to Barnard; was educated at Royalton Academy, Windsor 
Academy, Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, N. H., and the 
University of Vermont; in 1838 established the Lamoille Express, 
at Johnson; in 1840 came to Woodstock and founded the Spirit of 
the Age; in 1846 bought the Vermont Patriot at Montpelier, and 
continued in its editorship until his death. Published the first 
edition of his poems in 1848. 

There's much, he says, about Vermont 

For history and song ; 
Much to be written yet, and much 

That has been written wrong. 
The Old Thirteen, united, fought 

The Revolution through ; 
While, single-handed, old Vermont 

Fought them, and England, too. 

She'd Massachusetts and New York. 

And — so the record stands — 
New Hampshire, England, Guilford, and 

The Union on her hands ; 
Yet still her Single Star above 

Her hills triumphant shone, 
And when the smoke of battle passed— 

She'd whipt them all, alone ! 

Talk, says my uncle, growing warm, 

About the South and West ! 
Far's I know, they are well enough, 

Their lands may be the best ; 
But when you come talk of men, 

You may depend upon't, 
No State can boast of such a race 

Of people, as Vermont. 

They, independent as the winds 

That fanned them where they stood ; 
They were the men who took old Ti\ 

Because they thought they would ! 
They were the men, who, through Champlain, ' 

Swept on to Montreal ; 
The first to strike, the last to yield,- 

At Freedom's battle-call. 

Insulted by neglect, — when they 

For simple justice called, 
With contumely turned away, 

By rank oppression galled, — 
They were the men to stand alone, 

Alone their rights maintain, 
Alone their battles fight and win, 

Alone their freedom gain. 

And when the record shall be made, 

And their position shown, 
Their struggles clearly understood, 

Their conquests fairly known, — 
No men of any clime or age 

In history will outshine 
The heroes of the Single Star, 

The Doe's-head and the Pine. 

Charles G. Eastman. 



Vermont Reprint No. 27. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



Song in Autumn 

Charles G. Eastman, born at Fryeburg, Maine, 1816, died at 
Montpelier in 1860. He moved with his parents at an early age 
to Barnard; was educated at Royalton Academy, Windsor 
Academy, Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, N. H., and the 
University of Vermont; in 1838 established the Lamoille Express, 
at Johnson; in 1840 came to Woodstock and founded the Spirit of 
the Age; in 1846 bought the Vermont Patriot at Montpelier, and 
continued in its editorship until his death. Published the first 
edition of his poems in 1848. 

Take down the sickle, boys ! hurrah ! 

The ears of ripened grain 
Are waiting for the reaper's hand, 

Upon the fruitful plain ! 
The mellow moon, the changing leaves, 

The earliest setting sun, 
Proclaim at last, my merry boys, 

The harvest-time begun. 

Thick on the hills, to-morrow noon 

The gathered stook must see, 
And with the loads of yellow corn 

Shall groan the axle-tree ; 
The frost, my boys, will soon be here ! 

And winter's on the way ; — 
These glorious days will never, boys, 

For lazy farmers stay ! 

Take down the sickle, boys ! hurrah ! 

While loads of ripened grain 
Are waiting for the reaper's hand, 

Upon the fruitful plain, 
We'll gather up the golden corn 

In thankfulness, once more, 
And fill with the returning seed 

Our basket and our store. 

Charles G. Eastman. 



Vermont Reprint No. 28. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



The Famous Taverns of Vermont 

Valedictory address of Miss Ruth Chalmers of Rutland, delivered at the 
High School graduation exercises in that city. 

"In the days when there were no railroads and all traveling was 
by stagecoach or on horseback there were numerous taverns along the 
highways. These were the centers of life of country and village alike. 
Townspeople as well as guests assembled in the bar room to discuss 
questions of interest and problems of the day, both local and national, 
while in the parlor assembled social gatherings of all kinds. In those 
days the proprietor was a true host and usually one of the most 
influential men of the community. 

"Vermont had, of course, its taverns, many of which have become 
famous from the part they played in the early history of our state. 

" The Catamount Tavern in Bennington is perhaps the best 
known. It was an ideal tavern — a long low building with unpainted 
timbers which early became so weather stained that it seemed a 
century old — set far back from the street and shaded by flowing 
locusts. Its sign was a stuffed catamount, mounted on a tall pole, with 
teeth grinning angrily toward New York. From that sign came the 
name, though the house was first known as the Green Mountain tavern 
and it was commonly referred to as ' Landlord Fay's.' 

" When this tavern was in its prime Vermont's struggle for 
independence began. New York under whose jurisdiction the state 
had come had regranted to speculators the land which New Hampshire 
had already allotted to settlers. The Catamount soon became the 
center of the movements against New York and some years later in the 
Revolutionary war, against the common enemy It was the meeting 
place of the Committee of Safety, a band of the Green Mountain Boys, 
chosen to act for the people in managing affairs of war. It was the 
home of Ethan Allen himself for several years. 

" The old Council Room of the tavern has many a time seen the 
makings of history. It is here that those who disputed the Vermonters' 
claims to the grants were tried by the committee. Little wonder that 
the stubborn New Yorkers dreaded the summons to that council, for 
some were driven from the state and others were given the application 
of the Beech Seal — a vigorous flogging. From this room Ethan Allen 
sent his orders for mustering the Green Mountain Boys for the capture 
of Ticonderoga ; in it General Stark and General Warner planned the 
attack on Baume's entrenchments which resulted in Vermont's most 
celebrated victory, the Battle of Bennington, the turn of fortune of the 
English and the forerunner of the capture of Burgoyne at Saratoga. 

" Captain Fay died in 1781. Then the Catamount became a 
private residence, occupied in turn by two of his sons, a grandson, and 
a great-grandson. It was burned in 1871 and the spot is now marked 
by a bronze tablet bearing the figure of a catamount. 

"On Depot street in Windsor there stands a shabby old structure, 
apparently worthy of no special attention, but on the north end of the 
building, near the street a tablet with this inscription : ' In this build- 
ing was held July 2-8, 1777 the convention which adopted the consti- 
tution of the free and independent state of Vermont, the first in 
America to prohibit human slavery.' This is the old Constitution 



House, once a tavern next in fame to the Catamount. It was a large 
house for the times. On the first floor, opening from the main entrance, 
were two rooms, a bar-room and a sitting room, both popular places 
for the discussion of affairs of state. Probably it was in the room above 
the sitting room, the south chamber, that Vermont was declared 
forever free. There is some discrepancy in traditions regarding the 
room in which the committee for drawing up the constitution assem- 
bled, but it was most likely the south chamber, for there were good 
reasons for transacting business in a less public place than the main 
hall — spies were watching every movement and Burgoyne was already 
coming down from Canada with an army. In the same room the first 
session of the legislature was held in March, 1778. The legislature 
continued to meet in Windsor for six years and at every session the 
tavern presented a scene of busy life. 

" The Constitution House served as a tavern until 1850, then 
competition became too great and it was used for various purposes. 
After some years it was moved a few rods east toward the station to 
make room for a modern business block, and the ell was torn down. 
Now the historic old building seems to be having a struggle to look 
even respectable. 

"At the present time the leading hotel in Windsor is the Windsor 
House, a fine specimen of Colonial architecture, with heavy Doric 
pillars extending full two stories. Here it was that Lafayette spent a 
night when he made his final tour of the United States. Vermont was 
the last state visited by the hero and she made extensive preparations 
for his coming. At the Pavilion in Montpelier he was entertained as 
magnificently as possible. This old tavern is no longer standing but 
another of the same name takes its place. A tablet erected by the 
Daughters of the Revolution tells that ' Marquis de Lafayette passed 
the night of June 28th, 1824, in the old Pavilion which stood here.' 

" Bennington boasts of two historic taverns besides the Catamount, 
one of them Walloomsac Inn, the oldest in the state, and the other 
Harmon Inn, where General Stark took breakfast on his march to 
North Bennington. 

" In East Poultney there is a quaint old tavorn of a most hospitable 
appearance, Eagle tavern, a famous rallying place in the Revolution. 
Even yet, after so many years, it takes a few guests for whom provision 
cannot be found elsewhere. It was there that Col. William Watson 
delivered the famous toast: 'The enemies of our country, may they 
have cobweb breeches, a porcupine saddle, a hard trotting horse, and 
an eternal journey.' 

"Although the day of the tavern has passed Vermont has still 
continued to have its famous hostelries. For the last forty years 
Downer's in Weathersfield has been renowned in this part of the state, 
at least, for its hospitality. Many jolly parties have stopped to partake 
of the landlord's cheer and to admire the sign — a stuffed panther shot 
in that vicinity. Today the Woodstock Inn at Woodstock and the 
Equinox at Manchester are popular summer resortB and patronized 
frequently by motor parties, but these modern hotels occupy a far 
different part in the life of the state than did the taverns of the 
eighteenth century." 

Vermont Reprint No. 29. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



Song of the Vermonters Before the 
Battle of Plattsburgh 

He who has still left of his two hands but one, 

With that let him grapple a sword ; 
And he who has two, let him handle a gun ; 

And forward, boys ! forward ! the word. 
The murmuring sound of the fierce battle-tide 

Already resounds from afar ; 
Forward, boys ! forward, on every side, 

For Vermont and her glittering star ! 

Who lingers behind when the word has passed 
down 

That the enemy swarm o'er the line ? 
When he knows in the heart of a North border- 
town 

Their glittering bayonets shine ? 
Push on to the North ! the fierce battle-tide 

Already resounds from afar ; 
Push on to the North, from every side, 

For Vermont and her glittering star ! 

Forward ! the State that was first in the fight 

When Allen and Warner were here, 
Should not be the last now to strike for the right, 

Should never be found in the rear ! 
Then, on to the North ! the fierce battle-tide 

Already resounds from afar ; 
Push on to the North, from every side, 

For Vermont and her glittering star ! 

Hark ! booms from the lake, and resounds from 
the land, 

The roar of the conflict. Push on ! 
Push on to the North ! on every hand 

Our boys to the rescue have gone ; 
Forward ! the State that was first in the fight 

When Allen and Warner were here, 
Should not be the last to strike for the right, 

Should never be found in the rear. 

Charles G. Fastman. 



Vermont Reprint No. 30. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



Know Your Vermont — and Wish 
Her Well 

One of the things which seems to do much to pro- 
mote good fellowship, friendship and sympathy is that 
agreeable feeling which goes with what is called recog- 
nition. Let us try to explain : If you are away from 
home in a strange town, and by chance meet there 
someone you are acquainted with from your native 
place, you find that you almost always get pleasure in 
the meeting. You recognize him, and at the same time 
your mind quickly brings up to you pleasant memories 
of your home place, and you are glad, and you hasten to 
call the person a friend, — even though when at home 
you would consider him or her almost a stranger ! 

To illustrate again ; you make a new acquaintance, 
you see him once, and then again, and then again. You 
find you have friends in common ; that you have read 
the same books ; that you like the same songs ; that you 
enjoy the same kind of recreation. Almost before you 
know it you have a sympathetic and kindly interest in 
this new friend ; you like to see him ; you ntowaotd 
something for him ; soon you become attached to him, 
chiefly because you recognize him readily, and also 
because, when you do see him and recognize him, your 
memory brings to you at once interesting and pleasant 
thoughts connected with him. 

If, now, the children in a State, and especially in a 
State as beautiful and as full of wholesome human life 
as Vermont is, are all taught something about that 
State, — how it came to be founded ; what its first set- 
tlers did for it ; what are its industries and its resources; 
what are its accomplishments and what its present 
needs ; who have been its wisest and best men ; what 
the next generation can do for it ; what poets, histo- 
rians and story-tellers have said and sung of it ; what 
are the institutions its people support in common ; and 
a thousand other things about its hills, its streams, its 
rocks, its trees and flowers and birds ; — if the children 
learn these things they will almost surely have for their 
State pleasure in thinking of her and a wish to do 
something for her. 

The moral is : — 

Teach Vermont to Vermont children. 



Vermont Reprint No. 31. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



Vermont Statistics 

Admitted to the Union, February 18, 1791. 
Area : 

Vermont, 9,564 square miles 

Maine, 33,040 square miles 

New Hampshire, 9,341 square miles 

Massachusetts, 8,266 square miles 

New Jersey, 8,244 square miles 

Connecticut, 4,965 square miles 

Rank in Population : 

Vermont, 1790, 12 1830, 17 1870, 30 1900, 40 

Maine, 1790, 11 1830, 12 1870, 23 1900, 30 

New Hampshire, 1790, 10 1830, 18 1870, 31 1900, 36 

Massachusetts, 1790, 4 1830, 8 1870, 7 1900, 7 

New Jersey, 1790, 9 1830, 14 1870, 17 1900, 16 

Connecticut, 1790, 8 1830, 16 1870, 25 1900, 29 
Total Population, 1910 : 

Vermont, 355,956 

Maine, 711,366 

New Hampshire, 429,188 

Massachusetts, 3,203,864 

New Jersey, 1,883,669 

Connecticut, 1,114,756 

Per cent, of Native born in population, 1900 : 

Vermont, 86.7 

Maine, 88.1 

New Hampshire, 80.8 

Massachusetts, 70.6 

New Jersey, 77.2 

Connecticut, 75.4 

Juvenile Delinquents, per 100,000 of population, 1900 : 

Vermont, White, 40 Colored, 115 

Maine, White, 32 Colored, 139 

New Hampshire, White, 44 Colored, 

Massachusetts, White, 38 Colored, 163 

New Jersey, White, 28 Colored, 189 

Connecticut, White, 68 Colored, 606 

Paupers and Almshouses, per 100,000 of population, 1903 : 

Vermont, 119 

Maine, 168 

New Hampshire, 269 

Massachusetts, 197 

New Jersey, 95 

Connecticut, 214 

Per cent, of children, 5 to 18 years, who daily attend school, 1907 : 

Vermont, 60 

Maine, 60 

New Hampshire, 54 

Massachusetts, 61 

New Jersey, 47 

Connecticut, 57 



Average duration of schools in Days, 1907 : 




Vermont, 


160 


Maine, 


145 


New Hampshire, 


159 


Massachusetts, 


187 


New Jersey, 


188 


Connecticut, 


187 



Students in Public and Private Normal Schools, 1907 : 
Vermont, 262 

Maine, 750 

New Hampshire, 116 

Massachusetts, 2,218 

New Jersey, 909 

Connecticut, 662 

Vermont Reprint No. 33. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



Vermont Statistics 



Vermont, 

Maine, 

New Hampshire, 

Massachusetts, 

New Jersey, 

Connecticut, 



Vermont, 

Maine, 

New Hampshire, 

Massachusetts, 

New Jersey, 

Connecticut, 



Vermont, 

Maine, 

New Hampshire, 

Massachusetts, 

New Jersey, 

Connecticut, 



No. 2. 

Per cent of farm 
land improved. 

1890-1900 
60—45 
49—37 
50—30 
55—41 
75—69 
61—46 

Value of potato 
crop in millions 



1908 

1.3 
16 

1.4 

2.6 

4.7 

2.4 

Value of manufactured 

products, in millions 

1900-1905 

52 63 

113 144 



108 
908 
553 
315 



124 
1124 

774 
369 



Value of farm 

farm property 

in millions 

1890-1900 

102—108 

122—122 

80— 86 

148—183 

182—190 

108—113 

Value of wool 
clip in thousands 

1908 

236 

333 

95 

57 
56 
47 



Value of 

hay crop 

in mill'ns 

1908 

13 

18 



12 

10 

9 

Value of 

lumber 

cut in 

millions 

1907 

not given 

19 

13 

6 

not given 

not given 



Developed Water Power, 1908 : 

Vermont, 2,018 wheels 

Maine, 2,797 wheels 

New Hampshire, 1,799 wheels 



Massachusetts, 
New Jersey, 
Connecticut, 



Vermont, 

Maine, 

New Hampshire, 

Massachusetts, 

New Jersey, 

Connecticut, 



2,749 wheels 
902 wheels 
1,506 wheels 

Pop. per mile of 

public roads 

1904 

23 

27 

27 

164 

127 

64 



170,276 Horse-power 
343,096 Horse-power 
183,167 Horse-power 
260,182 Horse-power 
38,011 Horse-power 
118,145 Horse-power 

Expense of public 
roads per inhab'nt 
1904 
|1.65 
2.12 
2.12 
1.02 
1.73 
1.32 



Vermont Reprint No. 33. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



Vermont Statistics 

No. 3 

AGRICULTURE 

Every farmer in the State should get a copy of the Census Bulletin on 
Vermont Agriculture. It is a 16-page leaflet full of interesting facts 
about Farms, Farm Lands, Value of Lands, Farm Products and their 
Values and scores of other subjects. It shows wherein the State has 
done well in recent years. 

The average value of farm land per acre is now $12 52, an 
increase of nearly 30 per cent, over 10 years ago. The average value 
of all property per farm, including land, has also increased about 30 
per cent, in 10 years, and is now $4445. 

Of the entire area of the State only 28 per cent, can be called 
'' improved " farm land, about half what it was 30 years ago. Probably 
the farmers called many kinds of fields " improved " in 1880 which 
now they would call unimproved 

Only 12 per cent, of the 29,000 farms in the state are operated by 
tenants, and this percentage is almost as small now as it was in 1880. 

There are 730 farms only which have 500 acres and over, out of 
the total of nearly 33,000. The little farms of three to nine acres are 
increasing iu number rapidly. 

Native born white men hold 90 per cent, of all the farms in the 
State. 

The value of the livestock on our farms has increased 27 per cent, 
in ten years Nearly all this increase is in cattle and horses, and it 
will surprise some to know that of the nearly $5,000,000 by which our 
livestock has grown in value since 1900, $3,270,000 is in horses alone. 

The annual crop of cereals is worth $2,652,000, nearly all in corn 
and oats. 

The hay and forage crop is worth more than $16,000,000. 
OTHER ITEMS 

Miles of Railway Per cent of Dep'ts in Sav- Av. to 

per 10,000 Assessed Val. commercial ings banks each 

inhab. 1907 per mile 1907 failures 1908. 1908 in millions Dep'to r 



Vermont, 


28 


172 


.67 


60 


379 


Maine, 


28 


292 


1.10 


86 


379 


New Hampshire, 


27 


358 


.77 


82 


437 


Massachusetts, 


7 


1,525 


162 


707 


359 


New Jersey, 


11 


2,047 


.40 


93 


328 


Connecticut, 


10 


1,339 


1.44 


256 


474 



Vermont Reprint No. 34. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 





Vermont Statistics 






No. 4 








Value of all prop- 
erty in millions, 
1904 


Value of all 
live stock in 
millions, '04 


Value of farm 
implements an 
machinery in 
millions, 1904 


Value of man- Value 
d ufacturingma- railroads 
chinery, tools and their 
and implements equipm't 
in millions, '04 in mill'ns 


Vermont, 


360 


23 


8 


1904 

14 37 


Maine, 


776 


26 


9 


40 80 


New Hampshire 


517 


16 


5 


26 80 


Massachusetts, 


4,957 


36 


9 


239 250 


New Jersey, 


3,236 


32 


10 


180 333 


Connecticut, 


1,415 


17 


5 


99 105 



Number of pensioners on the rolls and the amount paid for 
pensions, 1908 : 

Number. Amount 

Vermont, 7,815 $ 1.422,551.79 

Maine, 17,620 3,066,015 49 

New Hampshire, 7,868 1,316,580.93 

Massachusetts, 40,044 7,003,969 16 

New Jersey, 24,420 3,424,077.35 

Counecticut, 11,826 1,848,403.88 



Vermont Reprint No. 35. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Fress, Woodstock, Vt. 



What My Uncle Jerry Says 



He speaks of politics, sometimes, 

Though latterly he spends 
On modern times but little breath 

Disputing with his friends ; 
And Kansas wars and Cuban schemes, 

And all that sort of bubble, 
Can give my Uncle now-a-days 

But very little trouble. 

But if you care to hear about 

When he was in his glory, — 
The early days of old Vermont, 

That sliine for us in story, — 
When " Hampshire Grants " were tracts of land 

Somewhat in disputation, 
Tracked by the most intractable 

Of all the Yankee Nation; 

When Ethan Allen ruled the state 

With steel and stolen Scriptur', 
And waged, alone, against New York, 

His " Beech Seal " war, and whipt her ; 
Or anything of matters when 

Our freedom we were winning, — 
He'll talk from dark to twelve o'clock, 

And just have made beginning. 

He'll tell you how for years we lived 

Without a constitution, 
And put the laws we made in force 

With perfect execution ; 
When Sheriffs and Committees were 

Our only legislators, 
And Seth and Ethan of the law 

The sole administrators. 

To Guilford, he will tell you how 

One evening Allen went, 
To quell in that Republic, there, 

Some little discontent ! 
The time, you know, old Ethan swore, 

And looked upon their farms, 
He'd Sodom-and-Gomorrah 'em, 

If they didn't stack their arms ; 

How long the Yorker part stood out, 

And swung their scythes and axes, 
And swore by all 'twas black and white, 

They wouldn't pay their taxes ; 
Till Bradley left the town without 

A Lamb among her birches, — 
A Mrs. Hunt's ungodly son 

Despoiled her of her Churches. 

How John Munroe came on one day • 

With all his Yorker train, 
And took Remember Baker up, 

And — set him down again ! 
How one Ben Hough, who practised law, 

And freedom in his speech, 
Received from one of Ethan's courts 

A verdict sealed with beech. 

Charles G. Eastman. 

Vermont Reprint No. 36. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Fress, Woodstock, Vt. 



Vermont Statistics 



Growth of the State's Grand List. 

The grand list of the state has increased $12526, 632 over the 
figures of a year ago, according to statistics compiled by State Treas- 
urer E. H. Deavitt, aud the valuation of real estate $12,610,412.16. 
The value of personal property, after deductions for debts have been 
made, has increased $939,620 02; and polls from $185,470 to 
$187 236, which means an increase in the number on the voting list 
of 883 

The deductions for the debt this year are $34,680,746.66, as 
against £32,734,245.20 in 1910 

Following are the figures for 1911 : 
Total appraised valuation of real estate for taxation, $155,996,976.16 
Total appraised val. of personal estate for taxation, 80,727,348.68 

Total deductions for debts owing, 34,680,746 66 



Total appraised valuation of persenal property, sub- 
ject to taxation after deducting the last men- 
tioned item, 46,046,602.02 

Total appraised valuation of real and personal estate 

for taxation, 202,043,575.85 

One per eent of the total appraised valuation of real 

and personal estate is 2,020,435.72 

Total appraised valuation of taxable polls (at $2) 187,236,00 

Total grand list, 2,207,670 72 
The following figures show the rank of the first fifteen cities and 

towns as regards personal property, real estate and the total grand list 

One per cent, on One per cent, on real 

personal property estate valuation 

Burlington, $38,885.15 Burlington, $115,860.52 

Brattleboro, 20,422 52 Rutland City, 68,541.80 

Rutland Citv, 18,005.71 Montpelier, 48,582.05 

Montpelier," 17,932 42 St Johnsbury, 45,47150 

St. Johnsbury, 14,914 54 Bane City, 41,470 50 

Woodstock, 14.700.32 Rockingham, 40,181.44 

Springfield, 13,762 44 Brattleboro, 39 378 00 

Rockingham, 12,975.13 Bennington, 38,269.80 

Bennington, 11,007.34 St. Albans City, 26,898.91 

St. Albans City, 9,707.13 Springfield, 25,729.82 

Proctor, 8,019.79 Hartford, 25,131.25 

Hartford, 7,667 47 Colchester, 18,017 35 

Randolph. 6,689.98 Woodstock, 16,802.07 

Middlebury, 6,51464 Randolph, 16,579 00 

Barre City, 5,439.50 Barre Town, 16,705 00 

Total grand list, 1911 : 

Burlington, $164,739.67 Springfield, 42,024.26 

Rutland City, 93,537.51 St. Albans City, 39,896 04 

Montpelier, 71,020.47 Hartford, 35,124.72 

St. Johnsbury, 65,686 04 Woodstock, 32,822.39 

Brattleboro, 63,598.52 Randolph, 24,906 98 

Rockingham, 56,574 57 Middlebury, 23,818 25 

Barre City, 53,595.00 Colchester, 23,073.95 
Bennington, 53,457.14 

Vermont Reprint No. 37. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



The New Vermont 

Vermont has a population of 356,000. This group of people is 
organized for two purposes only : by the railroads, that they may give 
the poorest service possible at the greatest cost to travelers ; and by the 
politicians, that they may hold all of the offices. 

The newspapers of the state seem remarkably good ; and they are 
probably about as influential as are other newspapers. 

What the state needs is something the railroads, politicians and 
newspapers have not given them, Organization, and guidance along 
certain dafinite lines. 

The railways ought to do this, for if the state were led to develop 
its water power and to use its land to better purpose by new farming 
methods, and to increase its quarry output and to attract more summer 
residents, the railways would be the first to profit. But the railways 
have not the sense to do a thing like this. Not yet. 

The politicians, through the state government, ought to organize 
and awaken and guide the state. They will not, chiefly because they 
are incapable of so doing. They are more concerned to hold office than 
to do something for the state they serve. That they will not organize 
and improve the state is shown by the fact that in the past 50 years 
they have not — and that they cannot is shown by the same fact ! 

The newspapers form an educational and energizing force, but not 
an organized one ; and in no community in the country will any group 
of newspapers definitely and systematically organize that community 
for greater social effort. 

Here is a little empire, rich in resources, easily capable of being 
made richer still, attractive to summer visitors and to the gentleman 
farmer, and by judicious advertising and improvement of railways 
and highways easily made vastly more attractive still At present it 
lies supine. Yet this little empire could be galvanized into active, 
productive life. 

Let us form an organization of friends of Vermont, men and 
women, residents and non-residents, to be called the " New Vermont 
Association." Through modest annual dues from each member, let us 
secure a fund with which to engage a secretary, a skilled advertiser, a 
man of experience, able to write well, and of agreeable presence, — and 
set him at work. 



Vermont Reprint No. 38. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



Ethan Allen 

From " Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys of '76," by De Puy. 

Perhaps no individusl, of equal advantages, and in the station he 
occupied, contributed more toward establishing the independence of 
our country, than Ethan Allen. The mass of people among whom he 
resided, were rude and uncultivated ; yet bold in spirit, and zealous in 
action. It consequently followed, that no one but a man of strong 
natural endowments — of much decision, energy and bravery — could 
control their prejudices and inclinations. Habit had rendered them 
familiar with danger, and impat ent of restraint : hence it followed, 
that no policy, unless proceeding from a source in which they had 
confidence, ever gained their approbation. Upon Allen, whose courage 
was undoubted, and whose zealous devotion to their interests was 
universally acknowledged, they implicitly relied. They had known 
him in adversity and prosperity — they had weighed him, and found 
nothing lacking. To friend or foe, he was ever the same unyielding 
advocate of the rights of man, and universal liberty. The policy, 
therefore, he upheld, as beneficial to the common cause of American 
liberty, ever found strong and efficient supporters in the friends with 
whom he associated, and by whom he was known. 

From the commencement of our revolutionary struggle until its 
final close, Ethan Allen proved a zealous and strenuous supporter of 
the cause. Whether in the field or council — whether at home, a free- 
man among the mountains of Vermont, or loaded with the manacles of 
despotism in a foreign country, his spirit never quailed beneath the 
sneer of the tory, or the harsh threats of insolent authority. A stranger 
to fear, his opinions were ever given without disguise or hesitation ; 
and, an enemy to oppression, he sought every opportunity to redress 
the wrongs of the oppressed. It is not to be supposed, however, that 
he was faultless. Like other men, he had his errors — like other men 
his foibles : yet he was not willfully stubborn in either. When con- 
vinced of an erroneous position, he was ever willing to yield ; but, in 
theory, as in practice, he contested every inch of ground ; and only 
yielded, when he had no weapons left to meet his antagonist. This 
trait in his character serves, at least, to prove that he was honest in his 
conclusions, however erroneous the premises from which they were 
deduced. 



Vermont Reprint No. 39. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Fress, Woodstock, Vt. 



The American 



Half covered by the wild woodbine 

And scented by the brake, 
O'ershadowed by the princely pine, 

And mirrored in the lake ; 
Oh ! dearer far to him than all 

The pomp of foreign lands, 
The humble cot his labor builds 

With free, unshackled hands. 

He gazes on his mother-land, 

Her rivers rolling by, 
Her monarch mountains, as they stand, 

Their blue peaks in the sky, 
To brave the fury of the storms 

That round their heads have birth; 

Her plains, where life in all its forms 
Wakes from the nursing earth, — 

And asks himself, with manly pride, 
Where is the land like this, 

Of mountain, flood, and prairie wide, 
And solemn wilderness ? 

While others boast of lordly hall, 

Of regal pomp and pride, 
Of fallen mosque and mouldering wall, 

And fields where kings have died ; 
Of crumbling tombs and monuments, 

Round which when time was young, 
The wandering Arabs pitched their 
tents 

And wild war chants were sung ; 

Of banners brave, and flags that love 

To look on riven shields, 
Whose haughty folds have waved 
above 

A thousand battle-fields ; 
Of Bannockburn. Pultowa's day, 

Napoleon's bloody star, 
Of Marathon, Thermopylae, 

Of Bosworth, Trafalgar, — 

He treads the land of Bunker Hill ! 

Where Yorktown's day was won, 
Where looks upon Potomac still 

The tomb of Washington ; 
And boasts of sacred battle-plains, 

Where, by oppression driven, 
A nation broke a tyrant's chains 

With blows for freedom given. 

Charles G. Eastman. 



Vermont Reprint No. 40. Published by Spirit of the Age 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



Our First Republic 

Vermont's Strenuous Early Days 



The first white man to visit what is now Vermont, so far as the records 
show, was Samuel Champlain, who, in 1609, sailed up the Sorel river and into 
the lake which bears his name. Near what is now Chimney Point, in Addi- 
son, he and his party had a battle with the Indians, who were repulsep 
because the invaders carried firearms. There were threads of cotton in the 
coats of mail which the Indians wore at that time. Antiquarians have always 
been interested to know where they obtained it. The first settlement was 
for many years credited to Fort Dummer,now Brattleboro, which was settled 
in 1724. Later historians date the first settlement from the constiuction of 
Fort Anne on Isle la Motte, in 1665, and inasmuch as there was some occupa- 
tion ever afterward this seems a reasonable conclusion. From this fort an 
important expedition against the Mohawk Indians was led by De Tracey in 
1666. There were incursions of Indians and the French came down from 
Canada to the northern portions of the state, particularly along Lake Cham- 
plain, for years after the discovery, but no permanent settlement was made 
until 1730, when a fort was built at Chimney Point and a few families set- 
tled near. Years afterward when the grantees of Addison came up from 
Connecticut they built their houses on the foundations laid by the French a 
generation before. 

The infant settlement at Fort Dummer did not long enjoy peace. It was 
attacked by Indians, the houses were burned, some of the settlers were killed 
and such others as did not escape were carried into captivity. In 1739 a set- 
tlement was begun at Westminster, but there is no record to show whether 
it continued long, or was broken up by the Indians. In 1742 or 1743 a settle- 
ment was begun at Putney by the same men who built the fort on " Dum- 
mer meadow, ' ' but they abandoned it upon the outbreak of the French war 
soon afterward. Then followed Bridgman's fort and Sartwell's fort, which 
were built in Vernon. Briegman's fort was attacked by Indians in June, 
1746, but the attacking party was repulsed. The next year the Indians took 
the forts and killed most of the settlers, carrying others into captivity. In 
1753 a settlement was begun at Rockingham and the one at Putney was 
re-established in 1754. Probably there were other attempts at settlements 
here and there, but the location of Vermont, between provinces controlled by 
England on one side and France on the other, made it very dangerous to 
undertake anything of that character. The Indian allies of the French were 
roaming through the territory and they destroyed anything which belonged 
to an Englishman. How many pioneers lost their lives during this period no 
one will ever know, but probably very many more than the records show or 
tradition even indicates. 

Canada was ceded to the English in 1760. Immediately there was an 
increase in the movement toward the new locality. Guilford was settled in 
1760 and in a few years became the most populous town in the territory. 
Population increased so that by 1765 there were 100 families between the 
Green Mountains and the Connecticut River. Bennington was settled in 
1761, 11 years after the date of its charter. The increase after that was 
rapid and a military census made in 1776 recorded on the east side of the state 
900 men capable of bearing arms. 

When Vermont declared its independence it was under the name of New 
Connecticut. Amodg its early inhabitants there were some Massachusetts 
people, a few from Rhode Island and scattering families from New Hamp- 
shire, but tee majority were from Connecticut and the ideas of liberty which 
had developed to some extent in Connecticut were destined to become even 
more dominant in the new territory. 



Vermont Reprint No. 41. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



The Romance of Vermont's Early 
History. 

( Burton H. Allbee in the Springfield Republican.) 



Vermont's early history reads almost like one of Scott's novels. Yet the 
early settlers were all men of hard, common sense. If they were theoretical 
about the rights of man, and insisted that their own rights be respected by 
New York and others who sought to interfere with them, they were at least 
sufficiently practical to found a commonwealth which was the first republic 
upon this continent. They succeeded in keeping a British army of 20,000 
men inactive in Canada during three campaigns and at the same time fought 
before congress for admission to the Union, regardless of the claims of New 
York and New Hampshire. The state had no friends among the early colo- 
nies excepting Massachusetts, and was forced to make its pleas unsupported. 
Ethan Allen, the picturesque hero of Ticonderoga, was born in Connecticut, 
but his restless, adventurous spirit was early attracted by the opportunities 
in Vermont, and he was more responsible for its erection into a state and its 
final admission into the Union than any other single man. Vermont's con- 
tribution to the Union of states has been a large number of men of excep- 
tional ability, thoroughly trained in all the virtues and fitted to be leaders. 
Vermont received scant justice during the Revolution, and even her able 
men, born diplomats, who succeeded in holding the British in Canada and 
saved the entire northern frontier from bloodshed and devastation, were 
denounced as traitors. Allen himself, the greatest of them all, after suffer- 
ing years of captivity, was called a traitor, and never fully recovered from 
the effects of the charge. In recent years, discovery of many documents 
has proved beyond question that he, and his brother Ira, accomplished one of 
the most astonishing feats in diplomacy. They saved Vermont from being 
overrun with soldiers, and also saved her to the Union. 



Vermont Reprint No. 42. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



Vermont's Industrial Importance 



(Burton H. Allbee in the Springfield Republican) 
But even though the census tables are discouraging, and a drive over 
some of the hills brings to light many instances of deserted home- 
steads, .Vermont is still an industrial center of importance. It has 
the largest marble quarries and the largest marble manufacturing 
concern in the world. Around Rutland are located the inexhaustible 
quarries of the Vermont Marble company which are producing an- 
nually a vast amount of wealth for the state. The mountains around 
Harre, Hard wick, Woodbury and other places are producing granite. 
The quarries and shops at Barre are the most important in the world. 
On the west side of the state are deposits of slate which produce as 
beautiful stone of this sort as can be found anywhere. 

The meadows and hillsides have the most fertile land that lies out- 
doors The free land of the West is exhausted. Whoever goes there 
now must pay the price. Vermont needs to take prompt and vigorous 
measures to advertise its resources in this direction. The dairy pro- 
ducts of the state have long been famous. The Morgan horse has 
been adopted by the government as the type necessary for a perfect 
war horse. Her sheep will some day come again to their own. And 
what more is required ? Prosperity can again be based upon these 
resources which are ready for development. 

There is one thing more which Vermont can do that will benefit the 
entire country, particularly the noise-worn, nerve-racked denizen of 
the city. She can give him a summer home where all those difficulties 
inherent in city life can be for the time forgotten. She has the most 
beautiful situations for ideal summer homes, and the prices for ac- 
quiring them are low. Her pure air, high altitude and scenic attrac- 
tions are unsurpassed. She should capitalize them and secure the 
emoluments which such development would allow. This means that 
certain progressive methods of administering internal affairs must be 
adopted and carried out. Happily the Legislature during the past 
two sessions has begun this It remains now for the towns to follow 
the lead of those who have been progressive enough to see the need 
and partly provide for it Concerted action is required. Transpor- 
tation facilities, including the common roads, must be improved and 
held up to the highest state of efficiency. The forest resources must 
be conserved, for without them the natural beauty of the hills and 
mountains, the greatest asset in a business of this character, will be 
irrevocably lost. 



Vermont Reprint No. 43. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



Of the Character of Vermonters 

Ira Allen in 1798. 

In answer to the question, " Of what class are the Vermont People?" 
Ira Allen in 1798 said as follows : 

" Four query puzzles me a little, for I am really at a loss in the 
classification of the inhabitants — they are all farmers, and again every 
farmer is a mechanic in some line or other, as inclination leads or 
necessity requires The hand that guides the plough frequently con- 
structs it, and the labours of the axe and plane often evince a degree 
of genius and dexterity that would really amaze you. As to what you 
call day-labourers the number is few, and if industrious they can soon 
emerge from that situation, the farmer does not look down on them 
with an eye of severity or contempt, on the contrary he holds out his 
hand to them, and assists to raise them on a level with himself. When 
a new settler arrives, it is not material from what part of the world lie 
came, industry and a good character are the best recommendations, 
and if he brings these with him. he is received with hospitality and 
kindness. A large family is considered as a blessing, for there is 
employment and encouragement enough for all. The first thing to be 
considered perhaps is a dwelling house; this is cheaply and easily 
reared, it is composed of timber, as there is plenty of wood ; conven- 
ience is chiefly consulted, the number of rooms is proportioned to the 
family, they are well lighted, shingled and airy, though snug and 
remarkably clean : though the furniture is not sumptuous it is useful, 
and every article is found in its place ; the labours of the family are 
divided and proportioned according to their strength, ingenuity, and 
sex. Their diet is wholesome, and the stranger finds a hearty welcome 
in every countenance The little cookery may be said to be hereditary, 
for there is scarce a family that has attempted to introduce any luxury 
in that line, which their ancestors would be ashamed to see on their 
table except tea, on which many now breakfast. Time is divided into 
labour and rest intermingled with innocent amusements, that render the 
one light and the other refreshing and sweet ; that the stranger and 
traveller may partake of their hospitality, the hours of repast are in 
general fixed and certain ; they breakfast at eight, dine at twelve, and 
sup at eight. As you seem to dwell on the day-labourer, I assure you 
that you would find it difficult to distinguish betwixt his humble board 
and the table of the farmer ; if the farmer chuses, he can dins on fish, 
flesh or fowl. 



Vermont Reprint No. 44. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



Pictures of Women. 

Emma Wood was bom in Woodstock in 1322 ; moved to Windham with her 
parents ; graduated at the Patapsco Institute ; married David P. Smith ; 
died in Pensacola, Florida, in 1853. 



And, first, I sing of one whose skilful hand 

And culinary lore unrivalled stand ; 

Who rears an altar to her household gods, 

And onward with a grovelling spirit plods. 

'Tis the chief end of all her mortal toil 

To mend and make, to bake and roast and boil, 

To keep the house from dust and cobwebs free, 

And all the carpets neat as neat can be. 

If you should chance to be her honored guest, 

She strives to please your palate with the best 

Of all the dainties from her choicest board, 

And rich abundance crowns the festive board ; 

But if you seek to feed the craving mind, 

No word of social wisdom can you find ; 

Her busy thoughts are wandering far and free, 

And dreaming what her next rich feast shall be. 

If you should speak of aught but household cares, 

She answers not, but vacantly she stares, 

And wonders, while the tempting food you taste, 

Your thoughts should wander from the rich repast. 

The policy that rules the world at large 

She deems inferior to her household charge. 

And in the same contracted, narrow sphere, 

She grovels on from year to year. 

II. 
Another, though she was untaught in schools, 
Unused to learning, and unformed to rules, 
Glides through her duties with a native grace, 
Filling with cheerful heart her humble place ; 
She lists each spoken word of truth unknown, 
And makes the fruits of others' thoughts her own. 
She knows her powers, nor ever aims at aught 
Beyond the bounds that mark her range of thought ; 
But year by year some youthful knowledge gains, 
By close attention and unwearied pains. 

Emma Wood Smith. 



Vermont Reprint No. 45. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



The Cock of the Saratoga 



In a recent issue of the Youth's Companion appeared 
a poem written by Theron Brown, entitled "The Cock 
of the Saratoga. " It is related that at the beginning 
of the naval battle of Plattsburg, in 1814, as the British 
ship Linnet passed the Saratoga, Commodore Macdon- 
ough's flagship, a broadside was fired and a shot struck 
a coop in the deck containing a young game cock 
brought on board by the sailors. The bird being released 
flew into the rigging and crowed lustily, flapping his 
wings proudly. The sailors cheered, considering this 
an omen of victory. The poem is as follows : 



No hail of the peaceful trader 

Or fisher trailing his seine, 
But the taunt of the armed invader 

Was heard over calm Champlain, 
And the tap of the redcoat drummer 

The wind from the border blew 
At the close of that warlike summer 

The year before Waterloo. 

For the hates of two rival regions 

Looked out with a bloody frown 
From the eyes of the watching legions 

Of the Congress and the Crown. 
And, with threat of havoc and slaughter. 

At a jealous king's command 
Came Downie over the water 

And Prevost over the land. 

The death-flags flaunted their warning 

From the fleet in battle file 
Ali the red September morning 

In the shadow of Grand Isle, 
Till over yon pine-plumed highland 

The lake-mist trembled away, , 
And the patriot squadron, silent, 

Sailed out of Plattsburg Bay. 

Then the hush of an awful minute, 
And a Yankee shot fled wide, 

And the guns of the British Linnet 
Thundered a whole broadside. 

Like hounds to the carnage summoned 
In revel of fire and smoke, 



Roared out the Simcoe and Drummond, 
Bellowed the Finch and the Broke. 

Hand rail and roundhouse and galley. 

Fell in the tempest's wreck 
Ere the war-dogs' first mad sally 

From the Saratoga's deck, 
But, wild thro' the deafening rages 

O'er his shattered prison-place, 
A cock flew out of the cages 

And crowed in the foemen's face ! 

Like furies fieri-e to the duel 

Of nation and nation then,- 
Where the hail of death fell cruel 

Rallied Macdonough's men. 
" Blaze away, Con fiance and Hurray, 

Every English gun let go ! 
Over all your fiery flurry 

We can hear our brave cock crow ! " 

There was blood on the blue lake waters 

When the flame of the fighting fleets 
From the carronades and mortars 

Tore through their shivering sheets, 
But never a Saratogan 

Faltered who fought and died 
By the guns where liberty's slogan 

The fowl of the flagship cried. 

Not an inch of rig or harness 

Hung clean on the reeking ships 
Where the brands of the battle furnace 

Had hurtled with demon whips, 
And with broken stay, and runner, 

And spar on the splintered floor 
Lay many a gallant gunner 

Who would serve his land no more. . 

But the fallen flag of the Briton 

Never rose to peak again ; 
The fate of the fight was written 

Where Downie slept with his slain. 
And ashore the story went winging, 

Till morning on every farm 
Heard the patriot cock whose singing 

Had strengthened Macdonough's arm. 
— Theron Brown, in Youth's Companion. 



Vermont Reprint No. 46. Published by the Spirit of 
the Age. For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt 



The Foundation of Our Liberties. 



Upon what then can the people depend, for the support and pre- 
servation of their rights and freedom? Upon no beings and precau- 
tions under heaven, but themselves. The spirit of liberty is a living 
principle. It lives in the minds, principles, and sentiments of the 
people. It lives in their industry, virtue, and public sentiment : Or 
rather it is produced, preserved, and kept alive, by the state of society. 
If the body of the people shall lose their property, their knowledge, 
and their virtue, their greatest and most valuable blessings are lost 
at the same time. 



Ye people of the United States of America, behold here the pre- 
carious foundation upon which ye hold your liberties. They rest not 
upon things written upon paper, nor upon the virtues, the vices, or 
the designs of other men, but they depend upon yourselves ; upon 
your maintaining your property, your knowledge, and your virtue. 
Nature and society have joined to produce, and to establish freedom 
in America. You are now in the full possession of all your natural 
and civil rights ; under no restraints in acquiring knowledge, prop- 
erty, or the highest honors of your country ; in the most rapid 
state of improvemont, and population ; with perfect freedom to make 
further improvements in your own condition. Iu this state of society 
every thing is adapted to promote the prosperity, the importance, and 
the improvement of the body of the people. But nothing is so estab- 
lished among men, but that it may change and vary. If you should 
lose that spirit of industry, of economy, of knowledge, and of virtue, 
which led you to independence and to empire, then, but not until 
then, will you lose your freedom : Preserve your virtues, and your 
freedom will be perpetual ! 

Taken from Sam'l William's History of Vt. 1809 



Vermont Reprint No. 47. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Fress, Woodstock, Vt. 



Vermont's Material Progress 

In the current number of the Vermonter Maxwell Evarts of 
Windsor, under the heading "Material Progress in Vermont," takes 
up William S. Rossiter's much discussed and much criticized historical 
and statistical study of the state A few paragraphs are taken from 
Mr. Evarts' article : 

" Unfortunately for the reputation of Vermont Mr. Rossiter did 
not have the agricultural returns of the 1910 census when he wrote his 
paper. They have since come in and make a magnificent showing, 
indicating beyond any doubt that the West is no longer any menace to 
the East and that Vermont is surely coming back to her own, i. e., as 
one of the great agricultural states, not only of New England but of 
the country. The value of the farm property of Vermont has increased 
from 1900 to 1910 from $108,451,427 to $145,399 728, or over 34 
per cent The value of the land and buildings per acre has increased 
from $17 58 in 1900 to $24 14 in 1910. The value of live stock on 
the farms was over 26 per cent, greater in 1910 than in 1900, being 
over $22,000,000 in 1910, as against over $17,000,000 in 1900 " 

Mr Evarts arrays the "great facts" about Vermont as follows : 

1 That her population has increased more in the 
last ten years than in any other decade since the Civil 
War. 

2 That " there is an army of 168,000 allies in the 
Vermonters in other states scattered indeed all over the 
Union but possessing an undimmed love for the father- 
land. ' ' 

3 That her people are of the purest Anglo-Saxon 
stock in America. 

4 That alone of all New England she has with- 
stood the competition of the West. The competition is 
now ended and Vermont is coming forward with great 
strides to her old place of a leader among the farming 
states. 

5 That the great inventive faculty which came up 
the river with her first settlers from Connecticut and 
which circumstances compelled to lie dormant is now 
being developed with her own capital. 



Vermont Reprint No. 48. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



Bennington's Early Defiance of the 
British Crown. 



One of the earliest declarations of the American patriots against the 
British government, ante-dating the Declaration of Independence, was that 
made by the town of Bennington. The original manuscript was found in the 
attic of the old Hubbell mansion in Bennington in 1897, when that building 
was torn down. It is thought that the document was written by Dr. Jonas 
Fay about 1773. It seems to have been lost to the sight of Vermont collectors 
and history lovers for a time. Horace W. Bailey, in an article on the Ben- 
nington declaration, says : " Diligent search was made to locate the original 



I 



Wake Up, Vermont 



Reprint from New York Sun. 

The census of 1910 gave Mr. William S. Rossiter, a competent authority, 
an opportunity to present Vermont's losses in population by towns in a 
sombre hght that compels reflection. The fruit of his labors appears in the 
Quarterly of the American Statistical Association. His figures bearing upon 
agriculture and industry, as well as population, may be taken for granted. 
A ray of light relieves the depressing gloom. Mr. Rossiter says : 

"While it is true that the population returns lor Vermont offer to 
the student perhaps the gloomiest statistical picture to be found at the 
present time in the United States, the State is still very far irom 
material or population catastrophe, and unquestionably still possesses 
in her own people the remedy for many ills " 

This conclusion is evident from the steadily rising value of manu- 
factured products, $32,000,000 in 1880 and $57,500,000 in 1900 (the 
figures for 11)10 were not available when Mr. Rossiter prepared his 
paper) and an encouraging improvement in farm values, chiefly in the 
dairy industry, but also in the price of land by the acre. Time waB 
when Vermont had 1,681,819 sheep and produced 3,699,235 pounds of 
wool. That was in 1840. There are few sheep on her hills now. 
Formerly she also exported a large number of horses, cattle ana swine. 
Vermont is still an agricultural State, but the dairy has become the 
farmer's main support. In raising beasts and cultivating wheat and 
other grains he cannot compete with the West. It is an old and 
familiar story. The farmers are not as prosperous as they were before 
1850, and their boys are still leaving the farm to improve their for- 
tunes, while their girls are attracted to the factories and city offices 
and stores. The departures of the younger people show little or no 
decline. 

Is there something the matter with Vermont besides the disad- 
vantages in natural situation and in competive opportunity she labors 
under? Mr. Rossiter suggests that conditions would improve if "the 
influential and able element in the State should organize and address 
themselves with unity, energy, money and enthusiasm to the task of 
encouraging native Americans to settle in the more fertile areas, should 
seek outlets for their products, develp resources and start new indus- 
tries," &c. It seems simple enough, but we urge that only Democrats 
be imported, for Vermont, has suffered for a long time from a conges- 
tion of Republicans, small as her population is. She needs a strong 
and active opposition party at Montpelier, with fresh brains and more 
public spirit than the ruling oligarchy has. 

We are glad to see that there are signs of a political awakening 
in the Green .Mountain State. In a late issue of the Vermonter we read 
that " the youuger men and the more progressive men in many com- 
munities are working together to down ring politics, to improve town 
conditions, and to bring in new enterprises." It declares that "the 
condition in some towns today is war." Rut lasting reform can never 
come from merely dividing tiie party in control Vermont must cul- 
tivate or import Democrats. Individual town representation should be 
done away with. There are so-called towns in Vermont, inferior 
places having few voters, that send only sheep to the Legislature. 

Improved transportation is a vital necessity to Vermont. If it 
cannot have more railroads across the Green Mountains it should have 
trolley roads. It is now difficult and tedious to get from the eastern 
to the western part of that narrow State. The railroads it has, with 
the exception of the Rutland, need better rails, cars and locomotives, 
better time tables and quicker connections. Railroad travel in Ver- 
mont, except in the Champlain valley, is often an imposition. Can't 
Vermont modernize its infernal "junctions"? 

The State does not make enough of its advantages as a vacation 
ground. Millions might be extracted from summer visitors. Good 
roads for automobiles, which a State must have nowadays to prosper, 
have been promised by Dr. Mead, the Governor. We hope for Ver- 
mont's sake that he is not wrong when he says that a million dollars 
are to be spent upon them. Vermont should also reserve selected 
mountain groups and protect her river sources before it is too late. 

In short, to put more money in her purse, keep her sons and 
daughters, and attract new residents, VermoDt must wake up. 



This is No. 14 of a series of Vermont reprints which The Age purposes to 
publish weekly during the year. These reprints will also appear as leaflets, 
printed on good white paper 8 1-2x11 1-2 for distribution by Vermont citi- 
zens and for use in reading and study in Vermont public schools. The leaf- 
lets are sold in lots of not less than 25, for 25 cents, mailed post free. 
Address The Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vermont. 

The previous numbers are: "The Independent Farmer," by Thomas 
Green Fessenden ; "Love and Liberty , " by Royal Tyler; "The Green Moun- 
tain Boys," by William Cullen Bryant; "Vermont," by William G. Brown; 
"Ode to Independence Day," by Royal Tyler; "Vermont Winter-Song," 
by Mary Cutts; "A Picture, " by Charles G. Eastman; "Comic Miseries," 
by John G. Saxe; "Come All Ye Laboring Hands," by Thomas Rowley; 
•'The First Vermonters," by Samuel Williams; "Green Mountain Home, " 
by Achsa W. Sprague; "My Mountain Land," by Charles Lindsley; "Ethan 
Allen," by C. L. Godsell. 



6 



I. J 



v.. . 



- — 



Manufactures of Vermont. 



Bennington's Early Defiance of the 
British Crown. 



One of the earliest declarations of the American patriots against the 
British government, ante-dating the Declaration of Independence, was that 
made by the town of Bennington. The original manuscript was found in the 
attic of the old Hubbell mansion in Bennington in 1897, when that building 
was torn down. It is thought that the document was written by Dr. Jonas 
Fay about 1773. It seems to have been lost to the sight of Vermont collectors 
and history lovers for a time. Horace W. Bailey, in an article on the Ben- 
nington declaration, says : " Diligent search was made to locate the original 
but without avail until a catalogue of an auction sale of rare books and docu- 
ments, many of them relating to Vermont, came to hand, in which a ful 
page was devoted to a description of this rare item. " This remarkable 
document, signed by five members of a committee and 32 of the people of 
the town is as follows : 

"Persuaded that the Salvation of the rights and 
liberties of America deposed under God, on the firm 
union of its inhabitants, in a vigorous prosecution of the 
measures necessary for its safety and convinced of the 
necessity of preventing the anarchy and confusion 
which attend a dissolution of the Powers of Govern- 
ment, we the freeholders and inhabitants of the town 
of Bennington, on the New Hampshire Grants in the 
County of Albany and province of N. York being 
Greatly alarmed at the avowed design of the Ministry 
to raise a revenue in America, and shocked by the 
bloody scene now acting in the Massachusetts bay do in 
the most solemn manner resolve never to bee Slaves ; 
and do associate under all the ties of religion, honour and 
love to our Country do adopt, and endeavor to carry 
into execution whatever Measures may be recommended 
by the Continental Congress or resolved upon by our 
Provincial Convention for of preserving our Constitu- 
tion and opposing the execution of Several Arbitrary 
and oppressive acts of the british Parliament, until a 
reconciliation between Great Britain and America on 
Constitutional principals, which we most ardently 
desire can be obtained ; and that we will in all things 
follow the advice of our general Committee Respecting 
the Purposes aforesaid, the preservation of Peace and 
Good order, and the Safety of individuals and Private 
Property. 

Ebr. Wood 
Elijah Dewey 
His Nathan Clark 

Jeremiah x Carpenter Benjn. Whipple 

Mark Jonathan Scottland 

Gosiah Fuller Committee. 

David Bates 

Eleazr Harwood Jonathan Scott 

Benja. Hopkins Archelas Nipper 

Thos. Jewett Nathan Clark, Jr. 

Nathaniel Lawrence Stephen Hopkins 

Samuel Atwood, Jr. Josiah Bough 

David Whipple David Safford 

Cornelius Cony Pawnel llosley 

Ehvaim Wood Saml. Montagu 

John Smith Gideon Spencer 

Ephraim Smith Thomas Tupper 

Samuel Atwood Lehben Armstrong 

Reuben Bass Cyrus Blackman 

Elisha Higgein's Clark 

His Joseph Safford 

Griffin + Briggs Berijah Hulber 

Mark Hamar Hebard 

Several of the men who signed the above are mentioned by Isaiah 
Thomas in his History of Vermont, he speaking of Elijah Dewey and 
Ebenezer Wood as men of prominence. Benj. Hopkins, the fifth man 
to sign, was the ancestor of the distinguished Hopkins who gave so 
generously to the cause of education. Reuben Bass was the first o 
that powerful New England family, while the descendants of Nathan 
Clarke became prominent both in law and manufacturing. Others 
of the Signers took part in the Revolutionary War. 



Vermont Reprint No. 49. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



o 



v. 



Seeing Vermont in 1806 



President Timothy Dwight, of Yale College, was accustomed to 
come up through Vermont on various journeys. He wrote letters which 
were published in four volumes. From volume 2, letter 13, is taken 
the following, written in about 1806 : 

"Vermont has been settled entirely from other states of New 
England. The inhabitants have, of course, the New England charac- 
ter, with no other difference besides what is accidental. In the forma- 
tion of colonies, those, who are first inclined to emigrate, are usually 
such as have met with difficulties at home. These are commonly joined 
by persons, who, having large families, and small farms, are induced, 
for the sake of settling their children comfortably, to seek for new and 
cheaper lands. To both are always added the discontented, the enter- 
prising, the ambitious, and the covetous. 

Many of the first, and some of all these classes, are found in every 
new American country, within ten years after its settlement has com- 
menced. From this period, kindred, friendship, and former neighbor- 
hood, prompt others to follow them. Others, still, are allured by the 
prospect of gain, presented in every new country to the sagacious, 
from the purchase and sale of lands ; while not a small number are 
influenced by the brilliant stories, which everywhere are told concern- 
ing most tracts during the early progress of their settlement. 

A considerable part of all those, who begin the cultivation of the 
wilderness, may be denominated foresters, or pioneers. The business 
of these persons is no other than to cut down trees, build log-houses, 
lay open forested grounds to cultivation, and prepare the way for those 
who come after them. These men cannot live in regular society. They 
are too idle ; too talkative ; too passionate ; too prodigal ; and too shift- 
less ; to acquire either property or character. They are impatient of 
the restraints of law, religion, and morality ; grumble about the taxes, 
by which rulers, ministers, and school-masters, are supported ; and 
complain incessantly, as well as bitterly, of the extortions of mechanics, 
farmers, merchants, and physicians ; to whom they are alwayt indebted. 
At the same time, they are usually possessed, in their own view, of 
uncommon wisdom ; understand medical science, politics, and religion, 
better than those who have studied them through life ; and although 
they manage their own concerns worse than any other men, feel per- 
fectly satisfied that they could manage those of the nation far better 
than the agents, to whom they are committed by the public. After 
displaying their own talents and worth ; after censuring the weakness 
and wickedness of their superiors ; after exposing the injustice of the 
community in neglecting to invest persons of such merit with public 
offices ; in many an elegant harangue, uttered by many of a kitchen 
fire, in every blacksmith's shop, and in every corner of the streets ; and 
finding all their efforts vain ; they become at length discouraged ; and 
under the pressure of poverty, the fear of a gaol, and the conscious- 
ness of public contempt, leave their native places, and betake them- 
selves to the wilderness." 



Vermont Reprint No. 51. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



The Two Great Assets of Vermont 

The following is an extract from the speech of Ambassador James Bryce of Great Britain, 



Manufactures of Vermont. 

From Bulletin of the Thirteenth Census, 1910. 

Vermont, with a gross area of 9,564 square miles, of which 440 represent 
water surface, is one of the smallest states in the Union, both in area and popu- 
lation. Its population in 1910 was 355,956, as compared with 343,631 in 1900 
and 332,422 in 1890. It ranked forty-second among the 49 states and territories 
of continental United States as regards population in 1910 and thirty-ninth in 
1900. In 1910 the density of population for the entire state was 39 persons per 
square mile, the corresponding figure for 1900 being 37.7. Forty-seven and five- 
tenths per cent of the total population of the state resided in incorporated 
places having a population of 2,500 or over, as against 40.5 per cent in 1900. 

The state has three cities having a population of over 10,000, Burlington, 
Rutland, and Barre. These three cities contain only 12.6 per cent of the total 
population of the state and are credited with only 19.5 per cent of the total 
value of its manufactures. Apart from these cities 34. 9 per cent of the popula- 
tion of the state resided in places of 2,500 inhabitants or over. 

Vermont has good railroad service, and Lake Champlain furnishes excellent 
facilities for water transportation in the northwestern part of the state. 
IMPORTANCE AND GROWTH OF MANUFACTURES. 

The manufactures of the state have increased from a total value of pro- 
ducts of $8,571,000 in 1849-50 to $5] ,515,000 in 1899 and $68,310,000 in 1909. 
During 1849-50 an average of 8,445 wage earners, representing 2.7 per cent of 
the total poulation, were employed in manufactures, while in 1909 an average 
of 33,788 wage earners, or 9.5 per cent of the total population, were so engaged. 
During this period the gross value of products per capita of the total population 
of the state increased from $27 to $192. From 1849-50 to 1909, however, the 
proportion which the manufactures of the state represented of the total value 
of the products of manufacturing industries in the United States decreased 
somewhat. This proportion was eight-tenths of 1 per cent in 1849-50 ; five- 
tenths of 1 per cent in 1899 ; and three-tenths of 1 per cent in 1909. In 1849-50 
the state ranked twenty-first in respect to value of manufactures, in 1899, 
thirty-fourth, and in 1909, thirty-eighth. 

The following table gives the more important figures relative to all classes 
of manufactures combined for the state as returned at the censuses of 1909, 
1904, and 1899, together with the percentages of increase from census to census : 







Number or amount. 




Per cent of 


increase 




1909 


1904 


1899 


1904-1909 1899-1904 


Number of establishments, 


1,985 


1,699 


1,938 


15.2 


-12.3 


Persons engaged in manu- 












factures, 


38,580 


37,015 


* 


4.2 


* 


Proprietors and firm 












members, 


2,113 


1,856 


* 


13.8 


* 


Salaried employes, 


2,679 


2,053 


1,695 


30.5 


21.1 


Wage earners ( aver- 












age number) 


33,788 


33,106 


28,179 


2.1 


17.5 


Primary horsepower, 


159,445 


140,616 


126.124 


13.4 


115 


Capital, 


$73,470,000 


$62,659,000 


$43,500,000 


173 


44.0 


Expenses, 


59,851,000 


54,677,000 


42,867,000 


9.5 


27 6 


Services, 


20,075,000 


17,324,000 


13,038,000 


15.9 


32 9 


Salaries, 


2,803,000 


2,103,000 


1,611,000 


33.3 


30.5 


Wages, 


17,272,000 


15,221,000 


11,427,000 


13.5 


33.2 


Materials. 


34,823,000 


32,430,000 


26,385,000 


7.4 


22.9 


Miscellaneous, 


4,953,000 


4,923,000 


3,444,000 


0.6 


42.9 


Value of products, 


68,310,000 


63,084,000 


51,515,000 


8.3 


22.5 


Value added by manufac- 












ture (value of products 












less coat of materials) 


33,487,000 


30,654,000 


25,130,000 


9.2 


22.0 


A minus sign ( — 


) denotes a decrease 


* Figu.< 


is not available. 







Vermont Reprint No. 50. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



The Vermonter of the Future 

Reprint No. 52 was an extract from the Tercentenary speech of Ambassador 
Bryce, in which he said that Vermont's two great assets are its men and women, and 
its scenery. Mr. Bryce compared the scenery of Vermont with that of Switzerland 
and Scotland, and said that our people have shown the hardy virtues which are 
always associated with peoples which inhabit mountainous regions. 

Following is an extract from a letter from Mr. William S. Rossiter, formerly 
Expert Special Agent, and Chief Clerk of the United States Census office, which 
was called forth by expressions concerning Vermont similar to those expressed by 
Ambassador Bryce, and is a keen commentary upon those ideas. 

" We can I think agree in hoping Vermont will never become an industrial 
State. As a matter of fact that means so much by what is omitted that we need not 
go much farther. I doubt, however, if it is wise to press the Highlands and Swiss 
idea too far. Our conception of the Scotch Highlands and Switzerland is derived 
from what they stand for in History. During all the period that we hear from them, 
the men of both races were nearly all hunters and warriors. These occupations, 
whatever their drawbacks, develop strength, daring, resourcefulness, energy, 
endurance and mental quickness. These qualities not only mean strong men and 
fine human stock-breeders, but a sort of automatic elimination of weakening vices. 
It was just that sort of stock, the dwellers on the slopes of the Apennines, that 
conquered the world for Rome. As long as these races had an objective which 
compelled mental and physical activity they were unsurpassed, but hunting and 
war have vanished in Europe, and Scotland's forlorn little Highland area is overrun 
by tourists in motors and trolleys and the settlements are suffering exactly as ours 
are from decrease and deterioration, while Switzerland is merely a tourists' paradise 
in which the inhabitants for the most part devote themselves to some form of service 
made profitable by the immense tide of travel. 

In our own country a century and a half ago the experiment was tried, for it 
amounted to that, of importing Scotch Highlanders to the similar region of North 
Carolina. With a magnificent environment but without any real objective these 
people have been a pitiful failure. They occupy a wonderful mountain area reach- 
ing into four states and in general they are a blot on our native stock. 

I have had the increasing conviction as I have studied our native element, 
that just as a beautiful and delicate mechanism is easily damaged, so this wonderful 
Angle-Saxon human evolution of ours is easily damaged and depreciates very quickly 
under unfavorable conditions. lean imagine a stolid non-intellectual race enduring 
long under adverse conditions. You can scarcely kill a cat-fish, a trout bleeds easily 
and dies quickly. Our stock is alert, brainy, resourceful and restless. To succeed 
it must have a sufficient objective. That it is decreasing and depreciating proves 
clearly that there is some serious defect I wonder if I am beginning to make clear 
the point toward which I am traveling in response to your comment about High- 
landers. It is this, our high bred Anglo-Saxon stock must have a compelling, 
absorbing purpose, one that will create mental and physical strength. They cannot 
in our time in Vermont be hunters or warriors. To sit still and cultivate a little 
hillside farm just to eke out a meagre existence didn't satisfy the yearning of our 
stock, and so in the early 30's they began to drift away and our present day problem 
had its beginning. In short to our modern Highlander if we would retain him and 
keep him at highest efficiency, we must supply a strong, profitable, absorbing 
objective. We cannot find it a factory, and I think it would be equally unfortunate 
to turn our people into hotel keepers, — I mean making a business generally of living 
on tourists. It seems to me, however, that we can find the highest and finest objec- 
tive by making the State distinctively agricultural in the best sense, by opening 
markets, — that is, channels to markets, — and by furnishing products that cannot be 
surpassed. In 1830 there was practically no outside-of-the-state market even possi- 
ble for Vermont food products. Today in New England and in the Middle States 
alone nearly 14,000,000 people live in cities of more than 25.000 inhabitants, practi- 
cally every one of which is within twelve hours' ride of St Johnsbury. If the Ver- 
monters of 1830 had had such a chance, I doubt if they would have left the State. 

Let us agree then that the Vermonter of the future ought to be a moun- 
taineer in the best sense, but actively engaged in making the cities pay him tribute, 
— keeping himself alert, sane and progressive. Is this visionary ? If not, what can 
we do to help realize it ? If it is, what can we do to help save our stock ? 

Yours sincerely, 

W. S.ROSSITER. 

Vermont Reprint No. 53. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



The Future of Vermont 

( From the Providence Journal.) 



There has been an impression, voiced from time to time with unjust emphasis 
by some of the " yellow " journals, that Vermont was not keeping pace with the 
general advance in prosperity and wealth of the nation. This condition, so far as 
it really exists, arises from the rather marked exception which Vermont presents to 
the tendency toward industrial development long in progress in all the other east- 
ern states, and of late iu most all of the states of the Union. 

Vermont affords a very pleasing illustration of the influence of environment 
upon population. The State was settled principally by natives of Connecticut and 
Massachusetts, and although the former State was the pioneer in American manu- 
factures and the sons of Connecticut have become famous throughout the world as 
the embodiment of Yankee ingenuity, their blood relations in Vermont have not 
developed these characteristics in aggressive fashion There has been, it is true, a 
modest proportion of manufacturers in the State, in some instances very successful, 
but the growth of industrial operations in Vermont has been slow. Indeed, at the 
last census the value of products of Vermont shops and factories showed an in- 
crease of but eight per cent, in five years, the smallest increase shown for any 
state in the Union. This figure compares with a national increase of nearly forty 
per cent. 

Experience seems to indicate that it would be a waste of energy, and perhaps 
of capital, to endeavor to increase textile or similar classes of industrial enterprise 
in a state which has never taken kindly to manufacturing in general. The water 
power of the state should, of course, be conserved and utilized, and to that extent 
manufactures of the specialized and ingenious sort could be profitably encouraged. 
The returns of the last industrial census reveal the interesting fact that almost half 
of the entire power generated in the state was secured from water wheels. Maine 
alone among the states exceeded Vermont in the proportion of water power utilized 
for industrial purposes. When this natural advantage has been properly exploited 
and utilized, Vermont should advance the value of manufactured products from a 
meagre eight per cent to a figure indicating more normal growth. 

The evident tendency of the state throughout its long and honorable history, has 
been to remain principally agricultural Vermont should turn her attention to the 
opportunity which exists today to a degree never before known, of catering to the 
enormous urban population almost at her doors. Within scarcely more than twelve 
hours' ride of St. Johnsbury, 14,000,000 people reside in cities exceeding 25,000 
inhabitants. The general movement from the country to the city, never more 
marked than at the present time, increases the demand for staple articles of food 
almost to urgency. Many of these products Vermont is pre-eminently qualified to 
furnish. 

The increasing tendency of the nation toward industrial operations upon a n 
enormous scale, carries with it the ever-present possibility of periods of depression, 
uncertainty and lack of employment. There is, moreover, the temptation, so clearly 
revealed in the recent labor troubles at Lawrence, to import aliens of a score of 
races, ignorant of American ideals and traditions, and thus to increase in some of the 
states the possibilities of unreBt, poverty and distress. Agricultural states like 
Vermont, although they may possess less aggregate wealth, have it within their 
power to secure stability, excellence of population and individual prosperity. These 
may in the end surpass the highest achievements of industrial communities. 

If the new movement in Vermont shall lead to intelligent and progressive 
agriculture, to conservation of natural resources and of scenic charms, to the immi- 
gration to the state of a high quality of citizens — tired of the servitude and excite- 
ment of the cities and of industrial life — and to a determined purpose to take 
advantage of the needs of the other states which have abandoned agriculture and 
turned their attention in feverish fashion toward industrial development, the years 
to come may easily find the small and beautiful Green Mountain state, one of the 
most contented, prosperous, virile communities among the northeastern states. In 
the long run, great aggregate wealth and rapid increase of population, drawn from 
all quarters of the world, may prove a poor test of permanent prosperity. 



Vermont Reprint No. 54. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the Elm" Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



Vermont and New Hampshire Once 
Near War. 

( From Wilbur's Early History of Vermont ) 

"From 1778 to 1781 there was great agitation 
among the people of both Vermont and New Hamp- 
shire, growing out of an attempted union of the towns 
in New Hampshire, near the Connecticut river, with 
Vermont. 

"A union was consummated and at one time the 
representatives of 35 New Hampshire towns took their 
seats in the General Assembly of Vermont. New 
Hampshire claimed that this action and attempted 
union was illegal and growing out of this controversy 
war was imminent between Vermont and New Hamp- 
shire, but better counsel prevailed and the union of 
those towns with Vermont was dissolved. 

" The committee of the House of the State of New 
Hampshire, 1779, reported to the House of that State 
that that State should lay claim to the jurisdiction of 
the whole of the New Hampshire grants, so-called, lying 
to the westward of Connecticut river. This looked like 
annihilation but 1he same report conceded that if the 
Continental Congress allowed the grants westerly of 
Connecticut river to be a separate State by the name of 
Vermont, the State of New Hampshire would acquiesce 
therein. This report was ordered to lie but it was 
taken up in June of 1779 and passed. This concession 
seemed to open a door whereby Congress could settle 
the whole controversy by admitting all the grants 
westerly of the west bank of the Connecticut river as a 
separate State. 

"Ira Allen waited upon the General Court of New 
Hampshire to settle the controversy. Allen's position 
was that New Hampshire had no just claims to the 
grants. He stated that Vermont had been to expense 
in sending agents to Great Britain, that New Hamp- 
shire had left the grants to contend alone against the 
New Yorkers, that the Green Mountain Boys had been 
deserted by New Hampshire and had to contend against 
the New York land jobbers ; that this was a time when 
the Green Mountain Boys were few in number and had 
but little more than Heaven to protect them and their 
families and when New Hampshire was appealed to to 
exert herself to obtain jurisdiction of the grants again, 
when the Green Mountain Boys were hard pressed by 
both Great Britain and New York, she said, ' the King 
gave and the King hath taken away, and blessed be the 
name of the King.' " 

Vermont Reprint No. 55. Published by The Spirit of the Age. 
For Sale by the Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



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Profit vs. Pleasure 

Charles Morris Cobb. Only child of Gaius Cobb. Born at West 
Woodstock, Vermont, December 20, 1835. Died March 7, 1903. 
Musician, writer, machinist by trade. Always very busy. 



They hauled him forth from out the drift, 

That cold December day, 
Where he'd gfot stuck and fallen clown 



The Two Great Assets of Vermont 



The following is an extract from the speech of Ambassador James Bryce of Great Britain, 
delivered at Burlington, Vermont, on the 9th day of July, 1909, at the Tercentenary Celebration 
of the discovery of Lake Champlain and Vermont. 

" I wonder, ladies and gentlemen, what the future has in store for a lake whose history is 
now so Btrangely unlike what was predicted for it. When one speaks of the failure of prophecy 
in the past, one ought to be shy of making any prophecies for the future ; but a man may perhaps 
venture to prophecy when he knows that the truth or falsity of his prediction cannot be known 
until long after he and those who hear him have all disappeared from this scene. So I will ven- 
ture to make one prophecy. It does not seem likely that your shores on thiB side, or on the other 
side of the lake, will ever be the scene of any very startling or sudden development of material 
wealth. You have indeed some fertile lands in southern Vermont, but you have not the coal here 
that other parts of the country have, and your Boil is not as fertile as are the prairies of the 
Mississippi valley. You may, indeed, possess mineral wealth that is not yet revealed. Science 
makes so many discoveries that we can never tell what stores of new minerals — perhaps of 
radium, far more costly than gold — may lie hidden in your hills. We cannot tell what new min- 
erals will be added to the marble quarries whioh are one of the sources of wealth of your State. 
But as I see the future at present, it seems to me that the great assets of your country in Vermont 
are two — one is the race of men and women that inhabit it. 

" You men of northern Vermont and northern New Hampshire, living among its rocks and 
mountains in a region which may be called the Switzerland of America — you are the people here 
who have had hearts full of love of freedom which exists in mountain peoples, and who have the 
indomitable spirit and the unconquerable will which we always associate with the lake and moun- 
tain lands of the Alps and of Scotland. You have shown it in the great men that you have given 
to the United States, and in the hardy pioneerB and settlers which you have sent forth from north- 
ern New England to settle in Northern New York, and all across the continent as far as the ranges 
of the Rocky Mountains. 

" And then your country is unequaled in the beauty and variety of the scenery with which 
Providence has blessed you. No other part of eastern America can compare for the varied charms 
of a wild and romantic nature with the States that lie around Lake Champlain and the White 
Mountains. And as wealth increases in other parts of the country, as the gigantic cities of the 
eastern States grow still vaster, as population thickens in the agricultural and manufacturing 
parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania, and Indiana and Illinois, one may foresee a time when the love 
of nature and the love of recreation and health will draw more and more of the population of those 
over-crowded cities and States to seek the delights of nature in these spots where nature shows at 
her loveliest. I would need the imagination of a poet or the pon of a real estate agent to figure 
out what the value of property will become on the shores here half a century hence, but this I can 
say, that I do believe that all eastern America will come more and more to value this region of 
mountains and lakes, as the place in which relief will have to be sought from the constantly 
growing strain and stress of our modern life. And anyone who values nature and loves nature, 
and who foresees such a future as that for this part of America, cannot refrain from taking this 
opportunity of begging you to do all you can to safegaard and preserve those charms of nature 
with which you have been endowed in such liberal measure. 

" Do not suffer any of those charms to be lost by any want of foresight on your part now. 
Save your woods, not only because they are one of your great natural resources that ought to be 
conserved, but also because they are source of beauty which can never be recovered if they are 
lost. Do not permit any unsightly buildings to deform beautiful scenery which is a joy to those 
who live on the banks, and those who come to seek the joy of an unspoiled nature by the river- 
sides. Keep open the summits of your mountains. Let no man debar you from free access to the 
top of your mountains and from the pleasure of wandering along the sides, and the joys their 
prospects afford. I am sorry to say that in my own country there are persons who in the interest 
of what we call their sporting rights endeavor to prevent the pedestrians and the artists and the 
geologists and the botanists, and any one who loves nature and seeks nature for her own sake, 
from enjoying the mountains and the views they afford. Do not, in this country, Buffer any such 
mistake to be made ; but see that you keep open for the enjoyment of all the people, for the hum- 
blest of the people, as well as for those who can enjoy villas and yachts of their own, the beauties 
with which Providence has blessed you. These, ladies and gentlemen, are some of the means by 
which this noble shore, the most beautiful of all throughout eastern America, cao be preserved 
for the enjoyment of your whole United States with some of that romantic charm, and that wild 
simplicity which it possessed when the canoe of the discoverer first clove its silent waters, and 
when gazing southward he marked the long ranges, the Adirondacks to the west and the Green 
Mountains to the east, from whose peaks two sister States now look at this shining expanse and 
unite, as we do today, in celebrating the fame and the name of one who belonged then to France, 
but who now belongs to the world, Samuel Champlain." 

Vermont Reprint No. 52. Published by the Spirit of the Age. 
For sale by the E!m Tree Press, Woodstock, Vt. 



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